The stars were on fire.
In a distant universe, beyond the reach of mortal eyes, the night sky was torn open by battle. Flaming meteors and streaks of energy painted the void as colossal monsters screamed — their roars shaking the fabric of space itself. The ground of an alien world trembled as hunters, armored in runic gear, launched into the air like meteors of their own, blades glowing with the light of their souls.
It was a war without pause.
One of the hunters, a towering man with silver hair and eyes like molten steel, swung his greatsword and cleaved a thirty-meter beast clean in half. The corpse fell, spilling steaming blood that turned the earth black. But before it hit the ground, three more monsters emerged from the shadows — twisted, deformed, drooling acid.
"Fall back!" one of the hunters shouted, raising a glowing sigil in the air.
"There's no falling back," another growled. "If we lose this gate, every universe linked to us dies!"
And so they fought.
The battle was a storm. Explosions erupted like suns, hurling hunters and monsters across the battlefield. Some hunters fell, crushed under claws or devoured whole. Others rose to impossible heights, breaking their limits, their eyes blazing with killing intent.
At the heart of the war stood a massive, pulsing rift — a tear between universes. The rift widened with every death, every clash, every scream.
And then, the worst happened.
A single monster, taller than a mountain and armored like a walking fortress, slammed its clawed hand into the rift. The universe shuddered.
The rift… grew.
It stretched, spread, like an infection — and in that moment, light burst out like a tidal wave, washing across worlds.
---
Somewhere far away, on a small blue planet called Earth…
People looked up at the night sky and saw something no human had ever seen before.
At first, it looked like a comet — a brilliant, burning streak. But then more appeared. Dozens. Hundreds. The stars seemed to fall from the heavens, leaving glowing trails.
And then the first monster landed.
A deafening BOOM! shook the city of New Tokyo as something the size of a truck crashed into the middle of the street. Screams filled the air. The creature unfolded itself — eight legs, sharp mandibles, glowing red eyes. Its hiss was so loud it shattered nearby windows.
It wasn't alone.
All over the world, meteors crashed — and from them crawled things humanity had no name for. Cities erupted into chaos. Tanks and jets scrambled to respond, but their bullets only slowed the monsters down.
And then came the hunters.
Gates of light opened in the sky, spilling out figures in strange, glowing armor. They were not human — not exactly. They were something else, something from beyond the stars. Each one radiated killing intent so heavy that normal humans fainted when they felt it.
They fought like gods.
One hunter appeared over New York, his sword swinging in a perfect arc that cut a monster the size of a building clean in half. Another hunter threw a spear that exploded like a missile, blowing apart three more creatures at once.
But for every monster that fell, two more crawled out of the rifts.
Earth had become a battlefield.
---
And somewhere, far away from the screaming, the panic, and the burning cities…
A young man sat in the shadows of an abandoned apartment.
He was calm. Too calm. His black hair fell over his sharp, unreadable eyes as he watched the chaos unfold outside through a broken window. The sky was on fire, and yet his expression didn't change.
"Finally," he muttered, almost smiling.
And then, he heard it — a voice, mechanical and cold, echoing inside his head.
[Initializing…]
[Welcome, Anos.]
[You have been selected by the System.]
The world seemed to hold its breath.
---
Back on the battlefield, a group of hunters had gathered near the largest rift in Asia. A monster bigger than anything they'd seen yet was crawling through, its body covered in black flames.
"We can't stop it!" one of the hunters shouted.
"Then we die trying!" another replied.
The clash was brutal. The monster swung its arm, and half a block of buildings vanished in an instant. Hunters fought, blood sprayed, the ground cracked, the air turned to fire.
And then — something unexpected happened.
A black figure walked out of the smoke.
He was barefoot. No armor, no weapon. Just a pair of black pants and a torn shirt. But when his eyes opened, they glowed like a dying star.
"Who is that?" one of the hunters whispered.
The figure raised his hand.
And the world… stopped.
For a single heartbeat, everything froze. The monster froze mid-swing. The hunters froze mid-leap. Even the air seemed to pause.
Then came the voice again.
[Leveling system activated.]
[First mission: Survive.]
The figure — Anos — smiled.
"Survive?" he whispered, stepping forward. "No… I think I'll do more than that."