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Chapter 1

Tick!

In the dead of night, everyone else asleep, the faint sound of a thread snapping traveled through the air.

In an instant, the boy opened his eyes.

The boy stood up silently, like a cat, and looked at the iron gate.

A small room that could barely fit two adults lying down.

With no windows, the only exit from this cramped room was the small iron door.

The boy, holding his breath, stared at the door handle.

Click! Click!

The sound of someone turning the handle echoed.

Though he had tried to keep as still as possible, the sound resonated loudly in the boy’s ears, who was already awake.

Clunk!

Finally, the lock released, and the door swung open slightly as someone peered in.

The intruder held a dagger the size of an adult’s forearm in his hand.

The man, not yet accustomed to the darkness, cautiously entered the room, feeling his way around.

The boy held his breath, observing everything.

Unaware of that fact, the man stepped further into the room.

That was the moment.

Tick!

A sound echoed as something snapped beneath the man’s feet.

It was a trap the boy had set in advance.

Bang!

“Oof!”

Instantly, a dull thud and the intruder’s scream rang out simultaneously.

A small dagger was embedded in the man’s side.

Designed by the boy so that the dagger would be launched upon the trap’s activation.

Unaware of the trap he triggered upon entering the room, the man had to pay a harsh price.

“Argh! What the…?”

The man writhed on the floor, shouting.

At that moment, the boy, who had been crouching silently all this while, moved.

Thud!

The boy propelled himself off the floor, mounting the man’s chest, seizing his dagger, and aiming it at the man’s throat.

The man looked at the boy in bewilderment.

“Ugh! This little bastard…”

“I was wondering who sneaked in like a stray cat, you’re just the neighbor from the next room.”

Quite literally the neighbor from the next room.

The man lived in the room right next to the boy’s.

He had passed by last night as well.

His countenance wasn’t pleasant, and the way he looked at the boy was so ominous that it couldn’t be forgotten.

The boy lightly tapped the man’s cheek with his hand.

“Hey, mister! Even if that’s the case, isn’t it too much to rob your neighbors?”

“How is something like that in an ant hole? You brat! It’d be best if you let go. Do you know who my brother is?”

“How am I supposed to know that? Mister!”

The boy looked incredulous, and the man beneath him grimaced.

“He’s an Awakened One. An Awakened One who uses magic.”

“You should at least lie properly. You expect me to believe an Awakened One’s younger brother lives in this ant hole?”

“It’s true. I’m here temporarily for some reason.”

“Then you should quietly go about your business instead of sneaking in to rob a kid, huh?”

“Hah! Damn it, then do you expect me to just leave it alone after I saw a magic stone right in front of me?

“Did you really see it?”

The boy clicked his tongue.

By chance, he obtained a small magic stone.

It was his first time holding a magic stone, and he was marveling at it when the man from the next room must have seen him.

The boy blamed himself for the mistake.

The slum, known as the Beggar’s Den or Ant Hole.

A place where the poor who can not enter Neo Seoul Colony gather, where rules and decorum don’t exist.

A place where the strong can trample on the weak and take away everything they have.

Being weak is a sin, being strong is an indulgence.

The boy, Zeon, knew these laws of the slum better than anyone.

Because he was born and raised in the slum.

His earliest memories began in a Beggar’s Den in the slum. From the moment he took his first steps, he was exploited for begging.

There were no good memories in the Beggar’s Den.

Hit for earning too little, hit for eating too much.

So, when he reached a certain age, he forcibly broke away from the Beggar’s Den.

It wasn’t just leaving the Beggar’s Den.

It was slipping out while the Beggar’s Den’s leader slept, leaving without a trace.

Due to this, the leader of the Beggar’s Den was still searching for Zeon.

The name Zeon was also something he came up with himself.

He needed a name to validate his identity.

The name itself didn’t hold much significance; it just sounded cool, so he chose it.

He was quite satisfied with his name.

There was nothing he hadn’t done to survive.

From pickpocketing to theft and everything, except killing, he had done it all.

Knowing that in the slums, complacency meant death, he had even set traps in his own room. Such meticulousness had saved Zeon.

Zeon pondered briefly about what to do with the man now lying beneath him.

If the man’s older brother was truly an Awakened One, it would be dangerous.

Then the man’s eyes gleamed cunningly.

Swoosh!

A dagger slipped out from the man’s sleeve.

It was a dagger hidden for emergency use.

“Die, you little brat!”

The man shouted and swung the dagger.

Zeon quickly took a step back.

The man pursued Zeon, his eyes filled with venom.

He swung his dagger with the sole intention of somehow killing Zeon and taking the magic stone.

“Ugh!”

Zeon grappled with the man desperately for a while.

Plop!

Shortly after, the sound of a blade piercing flesh burst forth.

“Argh!”

And the man, screaming, collapsed to the floor, a dagger embedded in his chest.

The man, who was looking at Zeon with an expression of disbelief, began to tremble and soon lost his breath.

“Shit!”

Zeon flopped down on the floor.

He had never done it before, this was the first time he had killed someone.

The eerie sensation of the dagger plunging into the man’s neck still felt vivid.

“Fuck!! Why did you have to sneak in…?”

Zeon stared at the dead man’s body.

He knew someday he would have to kill. To survive without being trampled in the slums, it was inevitable.

But he truly hadn’t expected that day to be today.

Zeon snapped out of it.

If the dead man’s brother was an Awakened One, it was dangerous.

Making the corpse disappear completely was impossible anyway. The slums were littered with people, and avoiding their gaze while moving a body was impractical.

It was better to leave the body here and quickly hide himself.

As soon as he made the decision, Zeon moved swiftly.

He securely locked the door of the room with the man’s body and stepped outside.

A street reminiscent of the old Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong appeared.

Shabby buildings lined up like chicken coops, with rooms cramped together without any order, making the street a maze-like labyrinth.

Zeon hid himself into the maze.

***

“Fuck! To think he was truly an Awakened One. Even if I have bad luck, how could it be this bad?”

Zeon muttered inside the armored bus with steel plates stuck together.

The older brother of the man Zeon killed was indeed a real Awakened One.

And not just any, he was a B-rank Awakened One.

Even if an F-rank Awakened One chased after him, it was a matter of life and death, let alone someone as high as a B-rank.

Among the numerous Awakened Ones in Neo Seoul, there were barely a hundred or so B-rank.

If Zeon were a commoner, a B-rank Awakened One would be nobility.

If he was caught, it wouldn’t end with just death.

He was enraged by his brother’s death and pursued Zeon.

It didn’t matter to him that his brother had tried to rob Zeon first.

No matter how wrong he was, he was still his younger brother.

The fact that his brother had died at the hands of someone like Zeon enraged him.

“Today, I’m escaping in such a pathetic manner, but mark my words, I’ll definitely get my revenge. Lee Jiryung.”

The Awakened One pursuing him was named Lee Jiryung.

He was an Awakened One with Lightning Magic.

Even within the magic world, Lightning Magic was notorious for its immense power.

Among B-rank Awakened Ones, he was one of the strongest.

Much like Zeon, Lee Jiryung knew the slums well. Although currently in Neo Seoul, he too was from the slums.

He had thoroughly mapped out Zeon’s potential hiding spots and escape routes.

Zeon was eventually cornered, hence why he boarded the bus.

It was an armored bus headed from Neo Seoul Colony to the Magic Stone Mines outside the colony.

Once outside the Neo Seoul Colony, it wouldn’t be easy for Lee Jiryung, no matter how powerful he was, to track Zeon.

‘I never thought I would get on this bus with my own feet.’

Zeon bit his lip.

Outside Neo Seoul Colony lay a desert.

The red sand stretches endlessly without a single blade of grass growing on it.

All kinds of dangers lurked in the burning red desert.

Beneath the sand lurked sandworms and armored sand beetles, while the desert surface housed all sorts of creatures like fire wolves and large horned hyenas.

There were even scavenger gangs lurking around, targeting caravans traveling up and down the colony.

Nowhere was safe.

That’s why, despite living a life worse than subhuman, the poor people remained outside Neo Seoul Colony.

For some reason, the beasts avoided coming too close to the Neo Seoul Colony.

At least, staying near the colony meant a reduced chance of being killed by the beasts. Hence, Zeon had stayed doggedly within the slums. But once targeted by Lee Jiryung, there was no place for him in the slums.

“Damn it! If only I had Awakened too…”

A hundred years ago, Earth had transformed into a desert.

Over ninety percent of humanity perished, and the survivors barely eked out life on the ruins turned to sand.

The ones who made the biggest contribution at that time were the Awakened Ones.

As if they had been waiting, a fraction of the survivors had Awakened to unknown abilities.

Some had their bodies strengthened, while others gained the ability to wield magic.

They were called the Awakened Ones.

The Awakened Ones became the rulers of a new world.

Even the low-rank Awakened Ones received special treatment in Neo Seoul.

Compared to them, someone like Zeon was no better than a peasant.

Even if Zeon were to die, no one would bat an eye.

Ultimately, Zeon’s choice was the bus headed to the Magic Stone Mines.

The Magic Stone Mines were situated in the Dolsan Mountain, seventy kilometers away from Neo Seoul.

All the extracted Magic Stone from there went exclusively into Neo Seoul.

The energy extracted from Magic Stone kept Neo Seoul, the megacity, running.

But mining Magic Stones required a lot of manpower.

The tunnels were narrow and cramped, leaving miners no choice but to wield pickaxes themselves.

Given the harsh environment, miners died continuously.

As a result, there was always a shortage of labor.

Under these circumstances, Neo Seoul let anyone willing to go to the Magic Stone Mines on the bus without even questioning or checking their identity.

This was how Zeon managed to board the armored bus headed to the Magic Stone Mines.

‘No matter what, I’ll survive in the Magic Stone Mines. And then, I’ll get my revenge on Lee Jiryung.’

While Zeon was looking out the window and burning with determination, the bus was filled with people.

All miners.

“Hey, kid! You’re heading to the mines too?”

A man sitting next to Zeon struck up a conversation.

He seemed burly and strong, fitting the profile of someone who volunteered for the mines.

Zeon responded harshly.

“What about it?”

“The kid’s got quite a fierce look. But still, be careful once you get to the mines.”

“Why’s that?”

“That place is filled with guys eyeing for the ass of a frail brat like you. Heheheh!”

The man scanned Zeon from head to toe with a sinister glint in his eyes.

‘This fucking bastard.’

Zeon knew exactly what that look meant.

The slums were full of guys who lusted after men, and many of them targeted Zeon.

Zeon had a slim body and a handsome face.

Except for the youthful fierceness, he could easily be considered a handsome young man.

If not for his alertness and fierceness, he would’ve been taken advantage of countless times.

Zeon was fiddling with the dagger he had hidden in his sleeve, wondering when he should dip the man sitting next to him.

Even if he didn’t take his life, he’d at least sever a tendon to render him a cripple, so others wouldn’t look down on him.

That was one way of surviving at the bottom.

But his worries didn’t last long.

The armored bus began moving.

The bus soon left Neo Seoul Colony and headed out into the desert.

The endless waves of the red desert seen outside the window overwhelmed the people on the armored bus.

Even the man who had been looking at Zeon with malicious intent couldn’t close his gaping mouth at the vastness of the desert landscape.

The armored bus was just a speck of dust on the endless sea of red sand.

Zeon muttered.

“We’ll be able to reach the mine safely, right?”

He regretted his words immediately.

That damn mouth of his.

The red sand was rising fiercely behind the bus as something ran furiously under it.

A huge sandworm was chasing the bus.

“Shit! There shouldn’t be any sandworms around here.”

At that moment, as if to directly deny Zeon’s words, the sandworm’s huge body protruded out of the sand. And like a meteor, it hit the armored bus.

Whoosh!

The whole scene came into Zeon’s eyes vividly, as if it was in slow motion.

‘Fuck! Does it make sense for a sandworm to fly?’

Bang!

The bus was hit by a massive impact.