Ali walked out of the dimly lit warehouse, his boots crunching softly against the dusty floor as he stepped into the sunlight. Behind him, stretching unnaturally from his heels, was a deeper darkness nestled within the ordinary shadow—concealing a lurking dragon that continued feasting on a dying man who had already lost both of his arms.
He paused, raising his head to look up at the radiant sun hanging high in the clear blue sky of Japan. The light touched his mask, warming his skin in a way that felt far more welcoming than the sun of Paradise.
Without saying a word, Ali opened his inventory with a mental command. A wooden fragment appeared in his hand—the small, enchanted piece of wood that Lorien had given him during their meeting back in Paradise.
It looked unassuming, but he knew it held power. Ali narrowed his eyes, focusing on the faint glow of names engraved into its grain. Only one of those names glowed with a faint, steady green light.
Ali hovered his finger over the softly glowing name, and immediately, his interface pinged with a new alert. He brought up the floating display, and the mini-map opened on its own. Far off in the thick, swirling fog that obscured most of the map, a green circular marker emerged and began moving slowly, almost cautiously.
'So that's the target's general location…' Ali thought, narrowing his eyes as he studied the shifting green circle.
He retrieved the phone he had stolen from the now-deceased sorcerer and flicked through it. The open contract page caught his attention—its reward amount had increased. More zeroes than before.
Ali closed the outdated browser app and navigated to the phone's map, comparing locations. The screen revealed two main destinations: Jujutsu High in Tokyo and another red pin dropped on the base of the sorcerer's organisation.
'Convenient,' he thought as he pieced the geography together, 'Their base is in the same direction as Jujutsu High and my target. Three birds, one path.'
Ali pocketed the phone and turned his gaze back up at the sun, its warmth washing over him again. He didn't have the luxury to enjoy it for long.
Roughly two kilometres away, nestled in the heart of central Tokyo, a narrow, unlit alley provided cover for three men standing in a triangular formation. Though each wore different casual clothing, there was one unmistakable similarity—each one had a small brown pin on their hoodie, adorned with the emblem of the Rock Guild.
They appeared to be in their twenties or thirties. One was a lean, sharp-featured European with pale skin and brown stubble. Another, the tallest, was Latin with a stocky build and a fierce gaze. The last was an Asian man with a more slender frame but eyes that suggested cold calculation. All of them shared jet-black hair and eyes, marking them with a subtle unnatural similarity that betrayed their alignment.
Jamie, the European and leader of the group, held a tiny black pebble between his calloused fingers. He glanced up at his teammates. They nodded once, silently. That was all the confirmation he needed.
Jamie's hand hardened and turned to a glowing, stony yellow as he clenched the pebble. It shattered into powder, releasing a smoky black mist that instantly darted toward each of their shadows like hunting spirits. This was a costly tracker—an item purchased from the Shadow Guild.
As the dark cloud merged with their shadows, the three players opened their interfaces in unison and navigated to their maps. A new icon appeared—a tiny black dot that was now moving steadily through the fog toward a specific destination.
Jamie's hand fell to a thin, gleaming metal chain around his neck. The necklace glowed faintly with a runic blue light. He took a deep breath, his voice calm but firm.
"The Guild Master invested a lot into this," he said with conviction. "These trackers, the enchanted necklaces… all of it. Our mission is clear—this player must die. No excuses, no escape."
The other two men nodded solemnly, tucking their glowing necklaces under their shirts before leaping up the walls of the alleyway with unnatural speed and dexterity, their figures vanishing into the city skyline.
Elsewhere, on the opposite side of Tokyo, the calm serenity of a small park near a traditional shrine was disturbed by faint electrical crackles. A girl with long, wavy blue hair and dark, attentive eyes leaned against a thick tree trunk. Her fingers drummed impatiently on the bark while she watched her guild-mate at work.
The man was older—short, about five foot four, with a square jaw and grey at his temples. He was kneeling, drawing intricate sigils into the dirt using bolts of lightning that danced from his fingertips, leaving behind sizzling blue trails that glowed faintly.
The girl shifted, annoyed. "Do you really have to do this ritual every single time you summon it?" she asked, brushing dust off her hoodie. Her tone sharpened. "We don't have time to waste. The vessel's location is public. If we're too slow, Toji might have already taken care of her."
The man didn't reply. His focus was unwavering as he completed the final mark of the summoning circle. A sudden shockwave of electrical energy burst outward, a crackling ring of blue light that passed through both of them harmlessly but seared the surrounding trees, scorching bark and wilting leaves.
In the middle of the circle, something sparked into existence.
BARK. BARK.
A small creature materialised—it looked like a puppy with a white horn, glowing blue fur, and electricity sparking around its tail and horn. Its deep sapphire eyes blinked innocently.
The girl sighed, stepping toward the beast. "The legendary Shock Unicorn. Honestly, you suck at naming things." She crouched beside it and began petting it, smiling despite herself.
'Too bad it isn't mine…' she thought with an edge of resentment. 'The Guild invested thousands of coins in this guy's pet after that Beast Guild analyst confirmed it was a C-rank with evolution potential. And then they send me to babysit this moron…'
She glared briefly at the older man before turning back to the creature, her smile fake and fleeting.
Back on the city rooftops, Ali was closing the distance.
He wasn't flying—not yet. Instead, he was leaping from rooftop to rooftop, conserving his Spirit points to slowly regenerate the cost of summoning the dragon head. Each jump was clean, powerful, his shadow trailing behind him like a ribbon of ink.
Below, a young Japanese boy tugged on his mother's sleeve and pointed excitedly at the sky. "Mama! A flying man!"
By the time she looked up, Ali had already vanished.
His mind focused. His attention returned to the darkened shadow beneath his feet. It was heavier than before.
'I feel it inside me somehow. Is it permanent? Or does it vanish eventually?' he wondered, unsure if his summon had a time limit or if it remained until slain.
Ali checked his interface again. His targets—the ones marked by the tracker—hadn't moved in over ten minutes. That meant they were either preparing something or waiting for someone. He was getting closer.
'Jacob once told me lightning was the strongest pure elemental magic…' Ali recalled as he tightened his grip and pressed forward, leaping again.
But just as he was about to jump to the next rooftop, he froze.
Something was off.
He turned sharply.
'Someone's chasing me!'
The realization hit him with a jolt—his instincts firing off like a warning siren the moment the three Rock Guild members crossed into range. He couldn't see them yet, but he didn't need to. His body knew.
He scanned his surroundings quickly and looked down at the nearest structure—an old four-story office building nestled between a pair of taller commercial complexes. The windows were dusty, some slightly cracked, and the faded company sign suggested it had been abandoned or closed for the weekend. It was Sunday. The building would be empty. Perfect.
Ali turned toward the rooftop access door and extended his hand. With a flick of Force, the lock clicked open silently. He stepped inside and gently closed the door behind him, the faint metallic echo swallowed by the thick silence of the building's interior.
Meanwhile, just outside, in the adjacent alleyway beside the building, Jamie and his two guild-mates dropped down from a rooftop with feline precision. They landed softly, barely making a sound despite the height of their descent.
Jamie opened his interface and pulled up the party's shared tracker. A small, pulsing dot blinked on the map—still inside the building directly ahead of them.
"He's here," Jamie announced calmly, his voice low and certain as his eyes rose to the building's rooftop.
The other two gave short, silent nods. Without hesitation, each of them reached into their inventory screens and began materialising their weapons.
Jamie's hands pulled forth a compact but deadly-looking shotgun. Its metallic surface shimmered faintly under the sun, and etched along the barrel was a glowing brown line that pulsed in sync with his heartbeat. In his other hand, he drew a short sword—nothing extravagant, but equally enchanted with earth-element runes.
His comrades retrieved their own equipment—each drawing a thick, square-shaped shield that gleamed with enchantments, paired with heavy war hammers laced in brownish energy veins that pulsed like living rock.
The three Rock Guild members, now fully armed, moved toward the building's front entrance in a tight formation. The two shield-bearers led the way, raising their defences high as they prepared for immediate engagement. Jamie walked behind them, shotgun levelled between the small gap in their coverage, aiming squarely at the glass front door.
On the sidewalk nearby, several Japanese pedestrians, startled by the sudden militaristic display, screamed and scrambled away. Some ran down the street in panic while others pulled out phones with trembling hands, hurriedly dialling emergency services.
BOOOOM!
Jamie pulled the trigger. The thunderous shot echoed through the street like a cannon blast. The reinforced glass doors shattered inward, reduced to shards that clattered loudly across the tiled lobby floor.
The trio stepped inside slowly, scanning every corner. Dust floated in the stagnant air. The ground floor was dimly lit and eerily quiet—no footsteps, no movement, no sound.
"He's not here," murmured one of the shield users cautiously, his hammer raised.
The Latin guild member glanced around, then turned to Jamie. "You want to sweep the building together, floor by floor? Or do we split up—take a floor each and bust through the ceiling to join up if one of us finds him?"
Jamie didn't answer immediately. He looked at the map again, then at the others. All three of them were high-ranking players in the Rock Guild. Not elite, but more than capable. Jamie, being the most experienced, sat at a respectable rank of 8,332—formidable by second-level standards. They had hunted tougher prey before.
Their target? A newcomer. Barely three days into the second level. Fresh blood.
Jamie made his decision.
"We split. I'll handle the third floor," he said firmly. "You take the second. First floor's yours. Stay sharp, watch your maps. If he makes a break for it, we regroup immediately."
The two nodded again, accepting the formation without question. Each man turned to a different staircase and began their ascent, boots heavy against the creaking old steps.
'Just three of them?' he thought, mentally running the odds.
His expression didn't change, but his mind was already working. These weren't random players—they were organised, professional, and clearly in sync.
'They're definitely in a party. If I take one of them out, their interfaces will alert them right away. I'll need to eliminate at least two at the same time before they can react—or it's a messy fight.', Ali thought as he looked at the rock guild members walk up the stairs from the broken entrance.
His feet were inside the building so the black dot on the map was detailed enough only to say he was inside the building and not where exactly inside the building.
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