He was taller, too. Once standing at 5'11, he now loomed at 6'1, his frame carrying a presence it never had before. His body had changed completely, muscles carved and balanced into a well-toned physique that looked as though it had been sculpted by years of training. It wasn't just strength for the sake of appearance either—it carried a raw, primal power, the kind of body worthy of a race elevated far beyond ordinary humans. A physique fit to be called that of a Primal Human.
'It's odd,' he thought, lifting a hand and clenching it into a fist, testing the feel of his new body. His mind was different too, sharper in ways that unsettled him. Sounds no longer just reached his ears; they unraveled into paths and patterns, allowing him to calculate how they would echo, where they would strike the walls, and how they would fade into silence. Each detail was processed with effortless accuracy, his brain turning the world into equations he instinctively understood.
And it wasn't only his mind. His control over his body was already settling in as if he had been born with it. That first slip, the stumble that cracked the floor, had been a mistake born from inexperience. But after that moment, there had been no repeats. Every step, every shift of muscle, every ounce of strength was now measured and perfect. He had adapted almost instantly, mastering the flow of his new power as though it had always been his.
"Looks like I need XP. I've played enough games to know what I need to do."
Muttering to himself, Seth moved to shut off the lights in his house. Better to stay unnoticed, better not to invite trouble. But when he flicked the switch, He paused as nothing changed. The room looked exactly the same. Confused, he flicked the switch again, but the result didn't budge. Only then did the truth hit him. The lights had been off the entire time. He hadn't even noticed, because his new eyes could pierce through the dark as if it were midday. Shadows no longer existed for him; the night itself had become clear.
He reached for one of his guns, the metal cold but grounding in his hands. Weapon ready, he approached the window, angling it toward the street outside. His gaze sharpened, and in an instant, his eyes widened.
There, just beyond the glass, the streets were no longer familiar. Shapes moved in the distance—grotesque, twisted things that made his stomach tighten. Monsters. Hundreds, if not thousands of them.
Two types stood out immediately. Goblins, small but vicious and overflowing in number, and the undead, dragging themselves forward with grotesque hunger. Goblins were undead as well, their bodies shambling with the same rotten lifelessness as the former humans that now stumbled through the streets.
The world outside his window had turned into something out of the very novels he used to read. It was the battlefield of the undead and the Goblin, two monsters attacking each other, with the undead clearly losing. But thanks to his eyes, Seth could see how those Goblins that had been killed were slowly being infused with a power he could only title death, causing them to, if even time, stand once more as undead.
'They look weak,' Seth thought, narrowing his eyes. The undead shuffled with such sluggishness that it almost made him laugh. To him, their movements seemed stretched out, like watching a poorly edited slow-motion scene. And when he focused harder, concentrating on the flow of the world around him, everything grew stiller—until time itself seemed to crawl, nearly frozen under his gaze. The power of his new eyes was undeniable.
Wasting no more time, Seth drew in a steady breath, centering himself. If he needed XP, then this was the way to earn it. Hand tight around his weapon, he pushed open the door and stepped outside.
The change was instant. The moment his foot hit the ground, every creature in sight reacted as though pulled by a single thread. Dozens of twisted heads snapped toward him in unison, their eyes locking on his figure. The streets fell silent for a single, terrible heartbeat. Then, as if given a signal, the monsters abandoned everything else. Goblins, zombies, and even the half-rotted goblin-undead hybrids all turned their hunger on him, abandoning their fights with each other.
Seth raised his hand steadily, finger tightening on the trigger. He didn't know if these monsters were bulletproof, but he wasn't going to wait until they were close enough to test it the hard way. The first shots rang out, a loud bang echoing through the night. Just as he suspected, the Goblin he had been aiming for shrugged off the impact, the bullet thudding uselessly against its disgusting-looking body.
But Seth adapted instantly. Adjusting his aim, he shifted to the most vulnerable point—the eyes. His vision locked with surgical precision, his Nexus Eyes guiding his shots with near-perfect accuracy. One by one, bullets pierced through sockets, bursting eyes and driving the monsters into shrieks of pain. Each scream carried across the street, a chorus of rage and agony.
And then he moved. Not like a normal man, but like something beyond human. His body blurred, flashing forward faster than any ordinary gaze could follow. In one fluid motion, he wrenched a dagger from which had weakened its grip after eating a bullet to the eye. With the gun in one hand and the dagger in the other, Seth became a storm.
Monsters that closed the distance met swift ends—the dagger cutting clean through necks, heads dropping before their bodies even realized they were dead. Those that seemed tougher, the ones whose frames promised more danger, never even touched him. He cut them down at range, bullets striking true before they could step within arm's reach.
The street was a battlefield, and Seth carved through it with brutal efficiency.
At high speed, bodies fell around him, collapsing one after another, yet something felt off. Seth frowned, confusion creeping in as he checked the corner of his vision for progress. His XP bar hadn't moved an inch. Not a single point.
'Either I'm too strong and these things are worthless… or this world doesn't work like the games I know,' he thought. A second possibility rose in his mind: maybe XP didn't come directly from killing. Maybe monsters dropped something—crystals, cores, essence—that needed to be absorbed.
With that theory in mind, he acted. His dagger flashed in a blur, cutting through a goblin in one clean cut. The creature fell, and sure enough, just as he suspected, a faint glow shimmered within its torn flesh. Embedded near the heart was a crystal.
Without hesitation, Seth discarded his gun, its magazine already empty, letting it clatter against the street. His focus was on the prize. He reached down, fingers closing tightly around the crystal, before he ruthlessly ripped it out of the Goblin.
A flash later, Seth was gone from the street, his form blurring as he landed atop a nearby building. From his new vantage point, he looked down upon the sea of monsters gathering, their numbers swelling as more and more were drawn to the chaos. He had just cut down over twenty of them, and yet his breathing was steady, his body calm. Not a bead of sweat touched his brow.
That in itself was impressive—and it made him wonder just how far his new limits stretched.
Turning his attention to the blue crystal, and after a moment of studying it, he saw a nullification pop up,
[0-Tier Monster Crystal] – A crystal that can be absorbed to increase experience by one point. Grants 1 XP per crystal consumed, with a maximum of 100 per day.
Seth looked at the message, unsure of how he was supposed to absorb the crystal. He turned it over in his hand, noting the faint glow within. For a while, he thought it through, running through possibilities, before ultimately deciding there was no reason to take risks without knowing more.
Pulling out his phone, he ran a quick search. Strangely enough, the internet was still working, and within moments, he found what he needed. Other people had already tested it, and the answer was simple—swallow the crystal.
That wasn't the only discovery. While skimming through the updates, Seth realized something that caught him off guard. He hadn't just been unconscious for a short while when enduring the pain. He had been out cold for an entire week. Seven days lost without him, even realizing it.
Oh, there is information that has been uploaded to help people. For example, ranking up was something that had different requirements per talent rank.
F rank talent: Tier 0 (1/10 XP) Combat Power-1
E rank Talent: Tier 0 (1/25 XP) Combat Power-2
D rank talent: Tier 0 (1/50 XP) Combat Power- 4
C rank talent: Tier 0 (1/100 XP) Combat Power- 6
B rank talent: Tier 0 (1/250 XP) Combat Power- 8
A rank talent: Tier 0 (1/500 XP) Combat Power- 10
S rank talent: Tier 0 (1/1,000 XP) Combat Power- 15
SS rank talent: Tier 0 (1/10,000 XP) Combat Power-20
SSS Rank Talent: Tier 0 (unknown, but most likely 1/100,000)
The combat power one started with varied depending heavily on their innate talent. Seth discovered that the highest initial combat power belonged to those gifted with SS-rank talent, beginning at a formidable 20. For perspective, a combat power of 1 was considered the baseline of an ordinary human being.
From there, combat power wasn't static—it could increase through multiple paths. Rigorous training, tiering up, or simply gaining XP all served as means of growth. However, the ceiling of one's combat power was determined by talent. A person could push themselves to their natural limit, but without tiering up, that limit could not be surpassed. Talent defined not only where you begin but also by how far you can rise before hitting a wall.
Because of this, combat power varied dramatically from one individual to the next, even within the same tier. There was no reliable "average" to compare against. A person's number was influenced by more than just raw strength. It encompassed fighting skills, unique abilities, specialized techniques, and even so-called "hax" powers that bent the rules of combat. All of it was distilled into a single figure.
And that number could be misleading. A higher combat power didn't guarantee victory. A clever fighter with lesser stats might still outmaneuver or outmatch someone who boasted a stronger number. In the end, combat power was a guide, not a promise.
"So, you all only have a combat power of three to eight," Seth said, glancing toward the swarm of monsters clawing and scrambling to reach him. Their snarls and desperate motions made it clear they wanted nothing more than to tear him apart, but he didn't even bother to raise his weapon. The XP they offered was pathetic—too low to matter. He had no intention of wasting time on weaklings.
His gaze swept over the street, scanning for something worthwhile. He was behind compared to others who had likely been building their strength during the week he was unconscious. That meant he was playing catch-up, and every moment mattered. Small fry were useless to him; only bigger prey would push him forward.
With a single step, Seth launched himself skyward, his body rising like a bullet, the air cracking faintly in his wake. From his vantage point, he locked onto a goblin larger than the rest. Its frame stood nearly human-sized, its muscles corded and thick, a massive sword clenched tightly in its grip... A HobGoblin.