Chapter 3 – The Survivor
Cold air. Real air.
Lee Kael's first breath outside the dungeon burned like fire in his lungs. He coughed, dragging himself upright on trembling arms, the ground beneath him slick with ash and frost. The portal behind him — the C-rank Gate that had swallowed dozens of Hunters — flickered violently before collapsing in on itself with a hiss of mana.
Silence followed.
The entire raid team was gone. Only one figure crawled out of the wreckage: a blood-stained cleaner with eyes that glowed faintly blue.
"Where… am I?" Kael murmured, his voice hoarse. His body felt lighter, different. He remembered dying — the Wyrm's tail crushing his ribs, the suffocating darkness — then the System's cold voice ordering him to kill the boss.
And he had obeyed.
The memory sent a shiver down his spine. Every heartbeat carried a whisper of power, a faint rhythm pulsing beneath his skin like a second life.
He looked at his reflection in a shard of fallen armor. His irises gleamed an unnatural hue — blue laced with black lightning. When he blinked, the glow faded, leaving only exhaustion.
Sirens blared in the distance. The Gate's collapse had triggered emergency protocols; rescue teams and guild operatives would arrive any minute.
Kael staggered to his feet. Every joint ached, but there was no mortal wound, no trace of the injuries that had killed him. His hunter-issued wristband blinked red — "Vital signs: Dead."
He snorted bitterly. "Guess even the system can't track me now."
For a moment he just stood there, surrounded by the aftermath — scorched earth, twisted steel, the faint scent of mana residue. His thoughts drifted to the others: the smug raid leader who called him "trash," the D-ranks who threw scraps his way, the healers who refused to patch a cleaner's cuts.
All gone.
And somehow, he didn't feel guilty.
> [System Notification]
Tutorial complete.
Secondary Protocol initializing…
[User LV 2 → LV 5]
Stat Points: +15
The glowing text hovered in front of him, unseen by the rescue drones that zipped overhead. Kael blinked at the sudden surge of energy coursing through him. His wounds sealed completely, his vision sharpened, his breath steadied.
So it wasn't a dream.
He clenched his fist. "You really brought me back…"
The portal site erupted in blue light as the rescue unit arrived — armored Hunters bearing the insignia of the Azure Guild, one of the city's largest. Their captain, a tall woman with silver hair and cold eyes, stepped forward.
"Hold position!" she commanded. "Search for survivors!"
Kael raised a trembling hand. "H-here!"
Weapons aimed at him instantly. The rescuers moved cautiously, scanning for corruption or mana infection. One of them approached with a scanner rod; the device beeped furiously when it neared Kael's chest.
"Captain, mana signature is off the charts. It's… fluctuating."
The woman frowned. "E-rank cleaners don't carry that kind of mana." She stepped closer. "Name and ID."
"Lee Kael," he managed, showing his cracked ID badge. "Cleaner, temp assignment under the Silver Wolf Guild."
Her eyes narrowed. "Silver Wolf? That entire team was declared KIA an hour ago. You're saying you walked out of a full C-rank Gate collapse?"
Kael's mouth went dry. "I don't know what happened. The boss went berserk… then there was light, and—"
"Save it for interrogation," she cut him off. "Get him in the evac pod."
Two Hunters grabbed him by the arms, hauling him toward a transport vehicle. The world blurred as the adrenaline faded. He heard the whirring of cameras, the click of reporters' drones hovering overhead.
> "Is that a survivor?"
"Only one? How?"
"The cleaner lived? Impossible!"
Kael clenched his jaw. The whispers burned more than any wound. Even after dying and coming back, he was still just trash to them.
Inside the transport, medical scanners hummed around him. The captain — her badge read Liora Kane — sat across from him, eyes sharp as knives.
"Tell me everything," she said. "Start from the moment you entered the Gate."
Kael hesitated. The System's interface flickered in the corner of his vision.
> [Warning: Disclosure of System data may result in termination.]
He swallowed. "I was assigned to cleanup duty. The raid went fine until… until the dungeon started changing. The mana density spiked. Something came through that shouldn't have."
"Something?" Liora leaned forward.
"A dragon-type. Huge. Black scales. It wiped everyone out."
Her eyes widened slightly. "A demonic variant? In a C-rank Gate?"
He nodded slowly. "I ran. Next thing I knew, I woke up outside."
Half-truths. Enough to sound plausible, not enough to trigger the System's warning.
Liora studied him for a long moment, then exhaled. "You're either the luckiest man alive, or you're lying through your teeth."
Kael didn't respond. The vehicle jerked as it lifted off toward the city. Through the window, he saw the collapsed Gate site shrinking below — a crater of frozen ash and blackened stone. His first battlefield. His first resurrection.
He touched his chest. Beneath his skin, the Devourer's Core pulsed faintly, feeding off the ambient mana. A whisper echoed in his mind, cold and mechanical.
> [Hidden Quest Unlocked: Survive the Investigation.]
Reward: Skill Upgrade.
Failure: Exposure → System Purge.
Kael's lips twitched into a faint smile. "Figures," he muttered. "Even outside the dungeon, it wants to play games."
Liora shot him a glance. "What was that?"
"Nothing, Captain."
But inside, a spark ignited. The world thought Lee Kael was a weak, broken cleaner. They had no idea a new System was growing inside him — something beyond human control.
He leaned back against the seat, closing his eyes as the hum of the engines filled the cabin.
This was only the beginning.