Wei Jin lost his family when he was fifteen.
A dungeon rupture tore open in the outer residential district late at night, it didn't trigger an immediate high-level response. By the time the hunters arrived, the street was already in ruins.
Jin arrived running behind them, his lungs burning, his mind blank, only to find shattered walls, torn bodies, and the unmistakable smell of blood.
His parents and sister were already dead by the time he reached what used to be their home.
The man who pulled him out of the wreckage was his uncle, Li Yuan.
Li Yuan arrived too late to save anyone else, but not too late to kill the monsters responsible.
Jin still remembered the way his uncle moved that night, cutting through the remaining creatures with calm precision before turning back to him.
He did not offer comfort, nor did he lie. He simply placed a coat over Jin's shoulders and took him away.
From that day onward, Li Yuan became both his family and his mentor.
Jin's gene awakened later than most, and when it did, it was weak.
Low-grade. Minimal growth potential.
That single assessment followed him everywhere. At the academy, instructors lost interest the moment they saw his file. Other students stopped hiding their contempt.
He was excluded from teams, ridiculed during training, openly called useless. Some told him to quit. Others suggested he volunteer as bait if he wanted to contribute anything at all.
Li Yuan never said those things.
"If your gene won't grow," his uncle told him, "then your body will."
Li Yuan trained him personally. Not polished academy forms meant for geniuses, but practical combat meant to keep someone alive when they were weaker than their enemy.
Jin learned how to move efficiently, how to strike without hesitation, how to endure pain without freezing.
His body was forged through endless repetition, injuries, and exhaustion. When Li Yuan obtained monster cores, he tried everything he could to help Jin's gene evolve.
Common cores failed. Rare cores caused violent rejection. Even a Unique core obtained at great cost did nothing except leave Jin vomiting blood on the ground.
Years passed, and Jin never stopped trying.
Some experts noticed his technique during joint operations and sparring sessions.
One of them said it openly while watching Jin fight, that if his starting point had been better, he would already be standing among the elites.
Jin carried those words with him like proof that his effort had not been meaningless.
Then came the dungeon that ended everything.
Li Yuan's team entered first. When too much time passed without word, Jin went to check, dread tightening his chest with every step.
Inside, he found silence, corpses, and blood staining the stone floor.
The team was already dead. Only Li Yuan remained alive, slumped against a broken pillar, his armor torn apart, wounds too deep to treat.
Jin rushed to him and carefully pulled him into his lap, pressing his hands against injuries he already knew were fatal, his palms slick with blood no matter how hard he tried to stop it.
His breathing was uneven, his fingers shaking as he tore at his sleeves to bind wounds that refused to close.
Li Yuan coughed softly and looked up at him, his breath shallow but his eyes still clear.
"Why did you come here?" Li Yuan asked, his voice low but firm.
Jin swallowed hard. "I waited too long," he said hoarsely. "I knew something was wrong. I should have come earlier."
Li Yuan frowned faintly. "You shouldn't have come at all."
Jin shook his head, tears falling as he pressed harder against the wounds, as if strength alone could change reality.
"I couldn't just leave you here. I couldn't—" His voice cracked. "You're all I have left."
Li Yuan was quiet for a moment, then exhaled slowly. "Foolish," he said, without anger. "If you died here too, then everything I did would mean nothing."
Jin clenched his teeth. "Then don't die," he said desperately. "Just hold on. I'll get help. I swear I will."
Li Yuan lifted a trembling hand and stopped him.
"Don't," he said softly. "I already know. It's too late."
His gaze steadied, sharp even now.
"I've hunted monsters long enough to know when my time's up."
Jin froze, his hands shaking harder. "No… you can't know that."
Li Yuan smiled faintly. "I do."
He took a slow breath.
"You did well," he said quietly. "You never wasted your life."
Jin shook his head, unable to accept it. "I'm still weak," he whispered. "I tried everything and it still wasn't enough."
Li Yuan looked at him for a long moment, then nodded once.
"You were strong," he said. "Stronger than anyone with your starting point had any right to be.
The world just never gave you a fair beginning. If it had… you would have stood among the strongest."
His hand slipped from Jin's sleeve, his grip loosening as his eyes slowly closed.
His hand trembled as it gripped Jin's sleeve.
"You were strong," Li Yuan continued. "Stronger than anyone with your starting point had any right to be.
The world just never gave you a fair beginning.
If it had… you would have stood among the strongest."
His grip loosened, and his hand fell away.
The dungeon trembled.
A surviving monster emerged from the shadows, its wounds still fresh from the earlier battle.
Jin picked up his uncle's sword and charged without thinking, screaming as he poured everything he had into a single strike.
The blade cut deep across the monster's throat, deeper than it had any right to, and this time the creature collapsed, its regeneration failing as it crashed to the ground.
As the monster died, something unfamiliar appeared before Jin's eyes.
[Monster slain.]
[Devour available.]
[Yes / No]
Jin froze, staring at the words, his hands shaking. He didn't understand them, didn't know where they came from, but instinct moved his hand.
Yes.
A violent heat surged through his body. Pain tore through his chest and spread into his limbs, but beneath it was something else—clarity.
His senses sharpened suddenly, the dungeon snapping into focus as if a veil had been lifted. Sounds became clearer. Movements sharper.
For the first time in his life, his body felt different, as if something inside him had shifted.
[Gene evolution detected.]
[Skill acquired: Sensory Enhancement.]
Jin knelt beside his uncle, trembling, his mind racing. If this was real, if this power had existed all along, then everything he had lost crashed down on him at once.
If only he had had the courage to hunt alone earlier. If only he had tried to kill monsters instead of surviving at the edge.
If only he had known that his path was different from everyone else's.
A sudden spike of danger screamed through his enhanced senses.
Jin turned.
Too late.
Another monster lunged from behind, its claw piercing straight through his chest. Pain exploded, sharper than anything before.
As he collapsed beside his uncle's body, his vision dimming, the last thing he felt was regret—not for trying, but for realizing the truth only at the end.
Darkness swallowed him.