The stench of blood and rust lingered in the air as Zayn Rathore tightened his grip on a worn-out dagger. His armor was secondhand junk—dented, stained, and barely holding together. Around him, the cracked walls of an abandoned Class E dungeon pulsed with eerie blue veins of mana.
He wasn't a Hunter. Not really.
No system window.
No class.
Just another Scavenger—someone who slipped into low-level cleared dungeons to steal mana stones, monster cores, or corpses left behind by real Hunters.
"Ten more stones and I can pay rent..." he muttered, crouching beside the corpse of a fallen Goblin.
But then... it happened.
A black ripple tore across the floor beneath him. A portal opened—silent, unnatural, and unregistered. No mana alarms, no guild notifications. It shouldn't exist.
Zayn's eyes widened. "The hell…?"
He should've run.
But a strange pull, like gravity, dragged his body forward. The dungeon around him blurred, his vision twisted—and then—
Darkness.
---
He awoke lying in a stone hall, its architecture alien—floating glyphs shimmered in the air, and statues of forgotten gods loomed over him.
> [System Error]
[Welcome, Unregistered User]
[Initiating Ascension Protocol…]
[WARNING: No Rank Detected]
[Proceed Anyway? Y/N]
Zayn stared in disbelief.
The system's talking to me?
He had never received a single notification in his life.
With trembling fingers, he touched the glowing [Y].
The air shifted.
Mana exploded around him.
Chains of red light wrapped around his body—tightening, testing, burning.
> [You have been selected for Ascension]
[All stats set to 1.]
[Special Trait: Evolution Code - Bugged]
[Begin Trial: Survive.]
A door creaked open.
Dozens of Shadow Hounds emerged from the darkness, eyes glowing crimson.
Zayn rose to his feet, dagger ready.
If this was how he'd die, he'd at least die fighting.