The night was quiet.
Too quiet.
From the rooftop of an unfinished building in the industrial district, Arin Veyron watched the empty streets below. Rusted warehouses stretched endlessly into the distance, their broken windows reflecting the faint glow of streetlights.
Most people avoided this area after sunset.
Factories had closed years ago, leaving behind nothing but abandoned structures and cracked asphalt roads.
To the city, this district was forgotten.
But to Arin…
It was the beginning of the apocalypse.
He checked his watch.
11:42 PM
The air felt heavier than usual.
A faint pressure lingered in the atmosphere, almost like the world itself was holding its breath.
Arin leaned against the concrete railing and stared at the dark sky.
"In eighteen minutes…"
"The first Gate opens."
In the previous timeline, the Gate had appeared inside one of the warehouses across the street.
At first, no one noticed.
The phenomenon had been small—barely visible.
Authorities only discovered it after strange noises were reported.
Three hunters entered to investigate.
They never returned.
By the time the truth was understood, monsters had already begun spilling into the streets.
Hundreds died before the situation was contained.
Arin's fingers tightened slightly.
"That disaster ends tonight."
But he wouldn't stop it directly.
Not yet.
The world needed to see the Gates.
Humanity needed to understand the threat.
Otherwise, when larger Gates appeared later… the chaos would be far worse.
What Arin planned tonight was something different.
Control.
He reached into his coat and pulled out a small device.
A recorder.
Earlier that evening, he had anonymously contacted a local news station and reported "strange lights" inside the abandoned warehouse.
Curious journalists loved mysterious stories.
Within minutes of receiving the call, they had dispatched a camera crew.
Arin glanced toward the street.
Right on time.
A white news van slowly rolled into the district and parked near the warehouse.
Two reporters stepped out, along with a cameraman.
One of the reporters—a tall man in his thirties—looked around nervously.
"Why are we here again?" he asked.
The cameraman adjusted his equipment.
"Some anonymous tip about weird lights."
The reporter sighed.
"This place gives me bad vibes."
Arin watched silently from the rooftop.
Good.
Fear would make the footage more dramatic.
The reporters approached the warehouse entrance.
One of them turned on a portable flashlight.
The beam of light cut through the darkness.
Inside the building, dust floated in the air like tiny stars.
Broken machinery filled the enormous space.
Everything looked normal.
For now.
Arin checked his watch again.
11:58 PM
Two minutes.
His heartbeat remained steady.
He had already lived through this moment once.
The difference was that this time…
He was ready.
Inside the warehouse, the cameraman whispered, "Maybe this is just a prank call."
"Probably," the reporter replied.
Then—
The air changed.
A strange vibration spread through the building.
The flashlight flickered.
"What the—?"
A low humming sound echoed through the warehouse.
At the center of the room, space itself began to distort.
The air twisted like water rippling across a lake.
The cameraman froze.
"Are you filming this?"
"Y-yes!"
The distortion grew larger.
Darker.
Like a crack opening in reality.
The reporters stepped back in fear.
"What is that thing?"
From the rooftop, Arin watched carefully.
The Gate was forming exactly as he remembered.
A swirling vortex of dark energy.
At first, it was small—barely two meters wide.
But it pulsed with unnatural power.
The first Gate in human history.
And it was being captured live on camera.
Perfect.
Inside the warehouse, the reporter whispered shakily.
"This… this can't be real."
The vortex suddenly expanded.
A cold wind burst outward.
The lights inside the building exploded.
Darkness swallowed the room.
And then—
Something moved inside the Gate.
A shadow.
The cameraman stepped backward.
"Did you see that?"
The reporter nodded slowly.
"Yes."
Before either of them could react, a creature crawled out of the swirling portal.
It was tall.
Almost two meters.
Its skin looked gray and rough, like stone.
Long claws scraped against the concrete floor.
Its glowing red eyes scanned the room.
The creature let out a low growl.
The reporters screamed.
"RUN!"
They sprinted toward the exit.
The monster followed.
Fast.
Too fast.
But just as it reached the warehouse door—
A loud siren echoed through the street.
Several armored vehicles rushed toward the building.
Armed soldiers jumped out, aiming rifles.
"OPEN FIRE!"
Gunshots erupted.
Bullets slammed into the creature's body.
The monster staggered but didn't fall.
It roared and lunged forward.
The soldiers panicked.
Their weapons barely slowed it down.
From the rooftop, Arin watched without emotion.
This was expected.
Conventional weapons were almost useless against Gate monsters.
Humanity had learned that lesson the hard way.
But tonight, things would go differently.
Another vehicle arrived.
This one carried three individuals wearing black uniforms.
Hunters.
Among them was a tall man holding a large sword.
His name was Darius Kane.
In the future, he would become a famous A-rank hunter.
But right now, he was still inexperienced.
Darius stepped forward cautiously.
"So that's the thing from the Gate?"
The monster roared again and charged.
Darius raised his sword.
The moment the creature reached him—
He swung.
The blade sliced across the monster's chest.
Black blood splattered onto the ground.
The creature screamed in pain.
The soldiers stared in shock.
"He actually hurt it!"
Darius attacked again.
This time, the monster collapsed.
Its massive body hit the concrete with a heavy thud.
Silence followed.
Everyone stood frozen.
The first monster from the first Gate…
Was dead.
On the rooftop, Arin slowly exhaled.
Everything had unfolded exactly according to his plan.
The reporters had captured everything.
The Gate.
The monster.
The battle.
By tomorrow morning, the footage would spread across every news station in the world.
Humanity would finally understand.
The era of monsters had begun.
Arin turned away from the edge of the building.
Below, emergency lights flashed across the district.
Authorities would soon seal the area.
Scientists would study the Gate.
Governments would panic.
And new organizations would form.
Hunter guilds.
Military task forces.
International alliances.
The entire world order would change.
Arin walked toward the rooftop stairs.
"This time…"
"The world won't be unprepared."
But as he descended the dark stairwell, a faint whisper echoed in his mind.
A memory.
In the original timeline, this Gate had been small.
Insignificant.
Just the beginning.
But something was different tonight.
Arin stopped halfway down the stairs.
A strange chill ran through his spine.
Slowly, he looked back toward the warehouse.
The Gate was still open.
And inside the swirling darkness…
Something much larger was moving.
Something that had never appeared during the first timeline.
Arin's eyes narrowed.
"…That wasn't supposed to happen."
The game had begun.
But the board had already changed.