Tokyo, Shinjuku. 11:45 PM.
Tokyo's rain has no mercy. It slips under collars, freezes bones, and pins dust to the asphalt. In a dark alley, far from the neon lights of the main avenue, a dull thud echoes against the brick walls.
PACH !
Kang Han-Jun collapses into the mud. His face is unrecognizable. A deep cut on his brow lets a trickle of blood run down, stinging his left eye. In front of him, twelve business school students, their eyes shining with a sickly excitement, surround him. They wear designer jackets, but their faces are those of primitive predators.
— "So, foreigner? Cat got your tongue?" sneered the leader, a tall guy named Sato, twirling an aluminum bat between his fingers.
Han-Jun tried to pull himself up, fingers clutching a greasy trash bag. The shame was heavier than the pain. But a masterful kick to the ribs sent him back to the ground.
KRAK !
The air was punched out of his lungs in an agonizing hiss. The pain was a constant burn, a silent agony he had endured for far too long. He saw their luxury shoes drawing closer. To them, he was nothing but a punching bag, a distraction to vent the stress of exams. The leader raised his bat above his head, the muscles in his arms bulging from the adrenaline.
— "Die in silence, trash."
VLAN !
The blow landed with brutal force. Han-Jun's temple exploded under the impact. A sharp, definitive crack. His vision instantly went white, then faded to a dull grey.
SPLAHT !
Han-Jun's blood spread, hot and steaming, before being diluted by the rain that was doubling in intensity. The twelve attackers froze. The silence that followed was heavier than the storm.
— "Is... is he dead?" one of them whispered, dropping his phone that was filming the scene.
Sato tucked his bat away, his face suddenly livid.
VROUM !
Without waiting, they scrambled into their black van parked at the alley entrance and sped off, tires screeching on the wet tar. They left behind an anonymous corpse amidst the peelings and soggy cardboard.
Meanwhile outside, the world tips over.
At the exact moment Han-Jun's heart stopped, an invisible shockwave swept through Tokyo. Birds flew by the thousands from the surrounding parks.
BOUM !
The sky tore open with the sound of shredded silk. A purple rift, immense and thrumming, appeared above the skyscrapers. In Shibuya, the giant screens flickered, cosmetic ads giving way to a single crimson message: [THE INVASION HAS BEGUN].
From the center of the rift, hundreds of creatures fell like a hail of nightmares.
SKRIIIIII !
The howl of the VOID CRAWLERS tore through the air, shattering the eardrums of the nearest bystanders. One of them, a mass of greyish muscle and claws, slammed onto a crowded bus trying to leave Shinjuku.
FRACAS !
The metal was torn like tissue paper. Everywhere, civilians began to run, grabbing umbrellas or kitchen knives to try and repel the impossible. Human blood began to flow in every street of the metropolis.
In the darkness of the alley, the resurrection begins.
Han-Jun's body lurched. A dense, cold black smoke began to escape from his open wounds, fighting against the rainwater. His bones knitted back together with the sound of breaking wood.
CLAC ! CLAC !
His ribcage straightened. His eyes snap open. They were no longer human eyes, but two wells of absolute void, devoid of all emotion.
[BING !]
[HOST'S HEART HAS CEASED TO BEAT]
[STATUS: DEATH CONFIRMED]
[UNIQUE PLAYER CONTRACT: ACTIVATED]
Han-Jun stood up slowly, each movement wrenching a groan from his still-stiff muscles. A Crawler flying over the alley, attracted by this new source of dark energy, spotted his aura and dove, maw agape, revealing three rows of razor-sharp teeth.
FIOUH !
The creature slammed into Han-Jun, sending him rolling against a dumpster. It was a savage brawl, a struggle for survival between two monsters. Han-Jun no longer felt fear. He grabbed the monster's upper jaw with his bare hands, his fingers sinking into the blackish gums.
GRR... KRAK !
In a cry of rage that no longer sounded like a human voice, he tore the entity's maw apart.
SCRITCH !
The black, acidic blood sprayed onto his face, burning his skin without him flinching.
SHLACK !
With a punch charged with a dark and unstable aura, he drove through the beast's thorax, crushing its energy core. The monster stiffened before finally vanishing into a fine golden dust that glowed for a second before dying out in the mud.
FROUISH...
[TARGET ELIMINATED]
[XP RECEIVED: +15]
[PROGRESSION: 15/1000]
Han-Jun slumped against the wall, gasping for the cold air. His right hand, the one that had struck, was covered in black wounds. He hadn't become a god. He was just a walking corpse who had just realized that the path to redemption would lead through a massacre.
In the distance, a much more massive roar, capable of collapsing concrete structures, made all of Tokyo's ground tremble.
GHRRRRRRRR !
Something immense, something titanic, had just stepped through the gate. Han-Jun picked up a twisted iron bar lying on the ground. He looked up at the purple rift illuminating the night with the glow of the end of the world.
— "More," he breathed, his fingers closing around the cold metal.