UH CH 6 (Patreon)

Later, I sat at the curb, bloody and bruised, watching the Hunters finish cleanup.

A medic approached, but I waved him off. "I'm not in a critical situation. Check the others first."

People were being carried out on stretchers. I recognized some of the faces. The ex-soldier in particular gave me a nod of respect and hurried off, while taking care of some other civilians. 

Two of the people who were in the bus with me seemed to have been killed by a few stray goblins. There was sadly nothing she or I could have done.

A couple approached me—the ones from the car.

"You saved our lives," the woman said, bowing low.

The man pulled out a card. "Please take this. We owe you." He was clearly desperate to give me a reward. I needed money. But money was never the reason I wished to become a hunter.

I pushed it back. "No. Spend it on a doctor. Get your wife checked out." Hospitals was expensive nowadays and I doubted they had good insurance since they lived in this zone. They were going to need all the money possible.

"But—"

"Please. Just go." I was calm yet firm. 

He hesitated. Then slowly nodded, giving me a thankful glance before leaving with his wife. 

Looking at them limping away, I felt something warm in my chest. Even a half baked hunter like me could still be useful. 

A government officer came up next. Clad in a black suit and a pin of the American flag on his chest, he was a member of the Association "You held them off until the rescue team arrived. That’s... not something just anyone could do."

"I did what I had to."

"Don’t sell yourself short. When the Gate opened in District 72 five years ago, half the block was wiped out before hunters could intervene. You stopped a disaster." He patted me on the back and left to coordinate with the group of paramedics.

I didn’t answer. My arms were shaking. Not because of fear. But shame and helplessness. 

I was truly happy that my meager skills helped in lowering the damages and helped more civilians escape. But this also made my limits all the much clearer.

At that moment, if help had not come, I would have died. 

To a mere group of hobgoblins. Nothing but a slightly lower E rank.

Meanwhile, Helen and the others my age trained by the guild were busy clearing D rank dungeons. Helen in particular was a true monster.

“Haha…” I let out a helpless laugh.

The city was still burning in the distance. Yet citizens who were not wounded were already going back to their day. Some filming the scene or looking only with mild interest.

This was Abyss City.

A place at the forefront of the war against the invader from another world. People were already all too used to death and losses. 

I remained seated, head tilted back against a broken post, letting the polluted wind sting the open cuts on my face. My jacket smelled like burnt leather and monster blood, and I didn’t have the strength to care.

“Impressive work,” came a voice—low, steady, and clear despite the chaos around us.

I looked up.

A tall man stood a few meters away, adjusting the glasses on the bridge of his nose. His red robe, embroidered with a coiled dragon, fluttered slightly in the heat waves rising from the pavement. A long staff rested across his back, its tip etched with glowing runes.

“You must be the first responder,” he said, walking closer. “Cain Bishop, right?”

I nodded, slowly getting to my feet. “And you are?”

“Zhou Weiren. C-Rank fire mage. Rising Dragon Guild.” He extended a hand, firm and professional. I took it after a pause.

This was not a name I recognized. C-rank Hunters were mid-ranked. They were people who had broken through the limit of humanity, and most of them were most likely Climber as well. 

But, while I did not recognize his name, I did recognize his guild. It was a newly created Guild by an A-ranked hunter. They were making a name for themselves but were still far from the level of the Guild, like the Queen’s Army.

Zhou Weiren glanced over the scorched asphalt, charred goblin corpses, and collapsed storefronts. If he noticed me scrutinizing him, he said nothing. “They told me what happened. Frankly, I didn’t believe it until I saw the bodies myself. Holding the line against hobgoblins without support? Not bad at all.”

“I didn’t hold the line,” I said quietly. “I stalled, and you burned them. That’s all.” I didn’t even have the time to fight them. He killed them too fast.

“Still more than most could’ve done. Many in your stead would have fled.” He nodded, then adjusted his glasses again. “It’s a pity what happened to your stats.” Though he said so, he did not give me a look of pity. Which I appreciated. 

I said nothing. The weight of those words settled deeper than any wound.

Zhou didn’t press. “Well, Though the situation is a little complicated, I have a great new for you.”

I turned toward him.

“You were the first hunter on site,” he said. “That means you have the Right of the Gate.”

“…What? I thought this law only applied to official Hunters.” The government gave many advantages to Hunters who actually fought against Gates. After all, few would risk their lives without adequate rewards.

“First responders, if they survive the initial wave, get one week of exclusive entry to the Gate once inspection clears any possible dangers and gives an accurate rank to the gate. This law applies to all awakened. Official Hunter or not. At first glance, this might be a low-level gate with only a goblin variant, but that’s still a small goldmine in Abyss City.”

I blinked.

“You can farm the monsters inside, collect cores and materials, or you can sell your rights to a guild. After that, the Gate goes to the association.” He gave me a gentle smile and I had to say. His words were truly encouraging.

I knew that inspection for such a low-level gate would only take two or three weeks at most, and that was mostly because the number of Gate openings had been on the rise lately. 

I struck the jackpot. 

I clenched my fist in quiet joy. Even if I couldn’t enter the gate myself, I could indeed sell it for a good profit.

The good news helped me chase away some of the stress that had been building up, and as such, I was able to look at my surroundings. 

A few meters away, two young Hunters were whispering. I noticed the young woman first. She wore basic reinforced gear, light armor, and a standard-issue dagger. Black hair and a tender white skin. Her gaze drifted toward me and froze.

It was Sofia.

We had dated years ago—back when I was still a teen. After we had both Awakened and people still thought I’d become someone great.

It lasted just under a year or two. She’d been drawn in by the hype surrounding me—the youngest dual-class prodigy to appear in a decade. We were young, chasing ambition, not love. When my decline began, when the truth about my locked stats and losses in power spread, she left.

I didn’t hate her strangely.

There had been no betrayal. No drama. Just quiet understanding that I could no longer offer the future she wanted. 

She didn’t look shocked—just… wistful. She took a half step toward me, then stopped. 

She didn’t sneer. Didn’t say anything cruel. Just offered a soft smile and a small nod—more melancholy than pity. Like seeing an old dream you’d once held close, now blurred by time.

I nodded back. I didn’t hold it against her. We were both just trying to survive in our own ways.

The boy beside her placed a hand on her shoulder. Tall, slightly younger than me, well-kept appearance. His gear was new. A fresh Awakened, probably. Her current boyfriend or someone courting her, if I had to guess from the way he was acting.

Zhou followed my gaze. “You two know each other?”

“Yeah,” I said. “We got together after we Awakened. It was... a different time.” I had no reasons to hide it. I was sure he could easily dig my past if he wanted.

“She is our new recruit. She doesn’t seem like a bad person,” he said.

“She isn’t,” I replied. I had no reason to say bad things about her.“She’s just clear about what she wants.” I joked a little and stopped looking at her.

The past was the past. I understood why she did what she did and it was why I did not hate her. But, I had no intention to come close to someone who left me at my lowest. 

We stood in silence for a moment.

Then Zhou exhaled and handed me a card. “We’re not recruiting. But if you survive the one week and get stronger, contact the Rising Dragon Guild. We like underdogs.”

I pocketed it without a word. I thought he would ask to buy the rights to the Gate, but it was a form of respect for me, or because he was uninterested in the Gate, he made no such offer. 

I left out a sigh of relief. There was no way I would have accepted to sell it. 

The first time clear reward of such a Gate was simply too precious.

But as I was now, clearing a Gate alone would be hard. 

I need more money. 

This made the cleaning operation all the more important. I needed to get as much money as possible during the inspection period and arm myself to the teeth. 

If this was a low level Gate then with enough patience and equipments, I might be able to clear it.