Long before the rank boards, guild towers, and mission terminals became part of daily life, humanity learned a brutal truth:
The world did not belong to humans alone.
Demons, cursed beasts, and broken supernatural things existed in the dark corners of the earth, feeding on fear, blood, and weakness. Some hid inside cities. Some ruled abandoned zones where entire districts had been swallowed by death. Some walked openly through war-torn lands, leaving behind only bones, ash, and silence.
To survive, humanity created Hunters.
Some Hunters were born with supernatural blood running through them.
Some were created through forbidden labs, rituals, and experiments.
Some were born from the union of human and demon.
And some… did not fit any category at all.
As the deaths rose, a mysterious command system appeared across the world like a law no one had written.
A Hunter spoke one word:
"Fōmu."
A mission appeared.
When the mission was complete, they spoke:
"Kanryō."
The system judged them. Rewarded them. Ranked them.
That was how the age of Hunters began.
And in time, the system became feared almost as much as the monsters themselves.
Because sometimes… it chose people for reasons no one understood.
⸻
Rain hammered the ruins of Sector Thirteen.
The district had been abandoned for eleven years after a demon-class outbreak turned its underground transit lines into a feeding nest. Half-collapsed towers leaned over shattered roads. Rusted signs creaked in the wind. Lightning cracked across the clouds, showing the broken skyline for a second at a time.
At the center of the wasteland stood a black chamber hidden beneath a dead cathedral.
Inside, pale machinery surrounded a single steel coffin.
The chamber lights flickered.
A female scientist with blood on her sleeve stared at the coffin through trembling eyes. Around her, masked figures barked orders, their voices sharp with panic.
"Seal the chamber!"
"His readings are climbing again!"
"He was never supposed to stabilize!"
The coffin shuddered.
Inside it, a boy slowly opened his eyes.
His irises were a dim gray at first, empty and distant, like someone waking up from a life they had never lived. Thick black fluid slid off his skin as he pushed one hand against the lid.
A voice came through the chamber speakers, warped and desperate.
"Subject K-0… do not move."
The boy sat up anyway.
The restraints around his chest snapped.
Warning sigils spread across the glass.
One of the masked overseers backed away. "He's conscious? That's impossible. The fusion should've failed."
The scientist whispered, almost to herself, "No… not failed."
The coffin exploded outward.
Glass rained across the chamber.
The boy stood barefoot in the smoke, tall enough to cast a shadow across the broken floor. Chains dangled from severed restraint mounts around his arms. His long black hair clung wetly to his face and shoulders. He looked at the people around him as if he had never seen another human before.
Then the system activated.
A black-red window opened in front of him.
Designation Pending
Origin: Incomplete
Class: Unfinished Execution-Type
The chamber fell silent.
And for the first time, the boy spoke.
"…Fōmu."
A second window burst open.
Hidden Mission Activated.
The massacre began.