Solo King (Solo Leveling Fan-Fic)

Monster

This word... the boy had heard it too many times, even at the time before he gained self-consciousness. And at one point in life, the boy himself had even thought that 'monster' was his true name.

He knew he wasn't normal. Everyone knew it too.

At the moment of his birth, his mom died... but not without giving a good look of pure hatred toward her newly born baby. She loathed the boy for taking away her life... and everything that belonged to her. She never wanted the baby, no, but she didn't have a choice. After all, it was she who signed the contract to be a part of this experiment, in exchange for a great sum of money... but all of that is gone now. She was dead, and the boy is alive.

He didn't know what she meant when she had said she was a monster, but he could feel it. His 'mother' had failed to live on and she abhorred him for that fact.

He heard the same thing from all the people in white lab coats around him too.

Monster, they described him as such. Monster they said...

Again, he didn't know what they meant when they said it, but the look of despised they gave him had said it all.

He never cried once up to this point... not even when he was born, nor even when his mom died. He was just calmly analyzing and absorbing all the information currently available around him—the humidity, air currents, temperature, technologies, speech patterns... everything.

That was the very second he knew he wasn't normal. Even without any knowledge beforehand, he knew, he and 'them' were different. He was... 'special'.

He was the only one of his kind. He was a monster. He was alone.

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In a separate room filled with extremely highly advanced equipment, an old man was busily monitoring the reading from the machine. In front of his eyes, he could see a miracle...

The reading had told him that the strength of the boy was on par with C-ranked hunters, but that wasn't it. The number was increasing as time goes on, sometimes fast, sometimes slow. In other words, the boy was experiencing reawakening in every passing moment.

"IT WORKED! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Tears of happiness were flowing out from an old man's eyes, as he keeps dancing madly.

But then from happiness, the old man's face transitioned into one of annoyance.

"The project had finally paid off. It took me more than 21 years, and finally... I did it. Tsk! If just a few more of these pigs died, the state would stop funding the project. At that point, who knows if f**king state wouldn't silence me just to keep my mouth shut."

Then he laughed madly again.

"But it worked! HAHAHAHAHAHA! At least these goddamn pigs' life had not been in vain. Soon, the world will know of my name as the greatest scientist who revolutionized the world! And if the project shows anymore promising results, it wouldn't even be impossible for me to awaken as a Hunter!"

The man kept talking to himself loudly without a care. If one had known this old man before, they would definitely do everything they could to avoid associating themselves with him. A crazy old man.

Since he was in such a good mood, he wanted to see the boy for himself, not just through the machine.

Opening the door into the baby's room, he could see that the woman's body was already disposed of. Observing the newly born boy, who seemed like he was already a year old, he felt delighted just by looking at his face, after all, it was his creation. His subordinates, on the other hand, was looking at the boy with disgust.

He could see that the boy, though looked like a human at first glance, was not human at all. He didn't have any skin, but scales instead. Scales that were aligned in a pattern so intricate, it might as well be human skins. He also didn't have any fingernails, but rather, slightly curved claws that seemed to made of unknown materials. And most noticeably, his eyes were different. It was of a green hazel color, rare but that wasn't the point. On where the round pupil that any human should have, it was replaced with sharp elliptical eyes... like a snake.

But after looking closely at the nonchalant face of the baby, his face slowly morphed into anger and he couldn't help but be slightly pissed. He himself also didn't know why he was pissed. He just felt like he was being looked down for some reason.

His own creation was looking down on him! Unforgivable!

"Now, now now, you little, little cunt. Did you know how much money was put into you? More than 1 trillion Won! You ungrateful bastard. What is with that look? Huh? Do you know how much money I put into you? How much time? I 'made' you shit fking worth something, so be grateful you son of a b*tch."

The old man was losing his sanity. Time has gotten the best of him, leaving him only a frail body with dementia. His subordinates also didn't stop him, partly because the old man was their superior, but it was mostly due to their disgust toward the baby boy.

But luckily he could still restrain himself from harming the boy, since that wouldn't do him any good, only troubles.

Averting his attention away from the boy, the old man looked at his subordinates.

"How's the blood test result?" The old man asked one of the scientists, who in turn did what he told, although with an irritated attitude.

"Here's the result." The subordinate said as he gave the old scientist the paper in a despondent manner. The guy didn't even know why he was assigned to this old man's department and doing all these crazy things, not that he didn't mind the extra money.

"Ohhhh! Out of all the DNA, Magic Cores, Rune Stones we implanted, 97% were compatible! Marvelous! What's more, he is constantly reawakening! The perfect killing machine! A monster! Hahahahaha!!!" The old man was already close to his death bed, yet here he is, screaming madly like he was in the prime of his youth.

"Come here, boy. Come greet your creator!" As if he totally forgot that he nearly beat the boy up earlier, the old man's face was blooming with a creepy smile. His wide smile was showing his dark brown teeth, as if he hasn't brushed it in ages.

The baby boy on the other hand, was still silently observing. He didn't know what they were doing, but he had a vague idea. He was just an experiment.

The moment this idea was drilled into head, his face showed a slight dissatisfaction. He, someone who was born to be at the apex of the world, was just an experiment? How laughable?

Still, he knew he couldn't be violent ... yet. None of the people can pose a threat to him—not at all—he could kill them easily if he wanted to. But there are some presences beyond those doors... that can threaten him.

He was just born... there was no way he was just gonna risk dying without any careful planning.

"Why aren't you saying anything? C'mon. Say, papa! SAY IT!!" Crazy as always, the old man asked the 10 minutes old boy to do something that even 3 years old kid might not even understand. The boy too, also didn't understand what the old man was saying... but his instinct told him that he was being commanded by an inferior being.

Why? Why was he, the king of this world, being ordered around?

Seeing the boy not responding, the old man got crazier. He wanted to strangle the boy but couldn't because it was too valuable.

"Professor... I don't think he can understand our language..." one of the new subordinates complained to the old man. Out of everyone here, he was the only one who was still not used to all the cruelty.

The boy immediately took notice of this action. It was something that he had never seen before... pity. He didn't dislike it, but he didn't like it either.

"What do you know! My creation! Someone of his caliber! Should be capable of doing anything! You're fired! Get the f**k out of my face!"

*Sigh* The other subordinates who saw that someone was being fired, couldn't help but laugh mockingly at the newbie. He should have known that the old scientist was crazy, and no one should ever mess with him.

Now that there was no one bothering him, the old man laughed out loud. He enjoyed the feeling of dominating others and soon even the little baby boy in front of him will know that HE should respect his own creator.

The old man turned his attention back to the baby, whose face was still as nonchalant as ever.

The old man grinned from ear to ear. He put his face closer to the boy, leaving only a 20 cm distance apart. But the boy didn't appreciate that. He didn't know the concept of ugly, but he felt the old man in front of him was 'ugly' for too many reasons.

"Call—me—papa?" The old man whisper, his eyes weren't showing a playing mood anymore. It was a chilling and cold look that could make you felt a drop in temperature just by looking at it.

The boy didn't respond. He was still calculating... everything.

"Please~" The old man's playful mood was back now, but his eyes were still cold, colder than ever.

But seeing the boy not reacting, the old man turned back and walked away. He was going to teach this boy a lesson.

But after walking a good distance away, the old man suddenly twisted his neck slowly back to see the baby.

Then instead of continuing to walk forward, he slowly turned his body and walked back to the baby.

But if one observed closely, you would see something a little off. The old man's face and eyes were blank, totally emotionless. His joints were bending in weird directions to make movements possible.

No one paid any attention to the old man's erratic movement. He was always weird, what if he's just a bit weirder.

The old man was getting closer.

2 meters... 1 meter... 50 centimeters...

He reached out his palm toward the boy's head, even though he hasn't even touched the boy once.

"Professor, I advised you to not touch the boy without wearing gloves." One of the older subordinates told the old man. He didn't want the old man to take it too far and accidentally ruin the entire project just because of some stupid mistakes.

But he didn't respond. Or more like..., he can't. He was hypnotized.

His right hand was now on top of the baby boy's head.

1 second... 2 seconds... 3 seconds... nothing happened.

The old man was still there, his hand on top of the boy's head. The boy didn't even flinch and just remain there, continuing to analyze the whole situation...

But there was something different in the boy's eyes... it seemed clearer.

"Professor, what are you doing!" The old subordinate asked again, this time a bit more forceful. He was here for a total of 19 years already, he didn't want to take any more risk.

The subordinate walked up to the old man and him on the shoulder. Suddenly he felt a sense of dread the moment his eyes landed on the old man's face. It was just a dry corpse. The old man was dead.

"Code Red+! I repeat! Code Red+!!!" The old subordinates screamed as he runs away with all his might. He wasn't sure but it was better be safe than sorry.

Hearing his words, the alarm suddenly went off. Then from the main door, a group of people barged in.

They were Hunters.

"Any non-combatant please leave! We are using Formation Eagle!" Said the leader, who was in a huge red knight armor. Evidently, he was a tank, with 2 fighters followed closely behind him. At the center, a smaller tank stand, protecting the 2 rangers and a healer at the very back. There wasn't any place for a mage, as that would have been too dangerous in such a small environment, nor was there any assassin as the space was too tight for any maneuvering.

With all the scientists far away, the whole team relaxed a little.

"Leader. It's just a baby, is there really a need for all of this?" One of the fighters next to him said in a mocking tone. The others also felt the same thing, but they wanted to hear the leader's words before voicing their own opinion.

But unlike the rest of the team, the leader's face was grim. The moment he had walked inside the room, he had already been releasing a suppressive aura that would pressure anyone who he identified as an enemy. But it wasn't working on the boy.

"Look closely, Hyuk, Myung... what do you see?" With a face full of caution, the leader asked the archers behind him. They should be able to tell the situation better than him.

"Heh? Isn't it just a stupid kid and the old crazy old man? What's so special." Hyuk, the lazy ranger with messy blonde hair replied. He didn't even bother to check.

But Myung, a guy who was fully dressed in a hunter outfit, was closely scrutinizing everything with his abilities...

"The professor is dead," Myung reported, surprising the entire team... but what he saw next terrified the living soul out of him.

"And the boy... No... no... What is that!??"

"What do you see Myung!!" The leader, who heard that, anxiously yelled back.

Pointing to the baby, Myung cried out. "The boy isn't a human! He's a mo—"

*Chomp*

But before Myung could speak any further, his voice was suddenly cut off.

During the moment when everyone was shifting their attention from Myung to the boy, the boy had used that to his advantage to claim Myung's life. The hunters couldn't even react and could only gasp for air. And what everyone saw next... was beyond nightmare they had witnessed.

A true monster.

Though still humanoid, he now had long saber-toothed-like teeth, enabling him to be able to dig his 2 upper fangs into the now dead man's eyes.

His legs, now transformed into something like a cheetah hind legs, were the reason for his inhuman and silent speed. But his arms were totally something different. It was like that of a bug, and it had a dark silver sheen, and steel-like structure.

The hunters knew what those arms were. Everyone knew what it was. It belonged to one of the most dangerous monsters in the world... the ant species...

[REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!]

The boy seeing that everyone's attention was on him, suddenly screeched loudly. It looked like a normal screech if not for the fact that anyone who heard it was paralyzed.

Making use of those short moments of paralysis, the boy leaped to the ranger next to him.

*Chomp* *Crunch* *Gulp*

The healer was dead. Her entire head was severed and eaten.

[Kukukukuku!] The boy giggled in a weird inhumane noise.

Looking at the bloody smile that the boy was giving them, everyone that was left alive, shivered.

Fear was implanted into the hunters. Instead of hunters, they were now the hunted.

They never signed up to die.

The boy was still weaker than some of them. That bit was true, but his primal instinct could compensate that.

He knew human psychology than they knew themselves. In front of an unknown, people could only exert a portion of their power. He knew that... that's why he is doing unnecessary and inefficient movements to scare them... to mislead them into thinking... he was the real hunter.

Unable to bear the gruesome scene, Hyuk, the blonde archer shrieked and run away, "AHHHHHHHH!!!!"

"GET YOURSELF TOGETHER HYUK!"

But it was in vain, Hyuk was already running away for his life and the boy had already calculated that. He didn't even bother to catch up with the archer and just leave him escaping.

Why?

If one human can run and make it out alive, what's the chance of the next person not doing the same?

It worked just as the boy planned. One of the fighters hesitated upon seeing his comrade was able to run away successfully. Why shouldn't he run too?

The combat strength of the team now fell below a third of its original strength with half their team gone and others in fear.

But still, the leader was a seasoned A-ranked tanker. He had participated in many dangerous raids, with some even more terrible than this. As long as they remain composed, they should be fine.

"Get yourself together, Shihyuk, Shun-il. Stick to the formation, I will tank. Hyuk should get reinforcement soon." The leader said harshly to his teammates. They needed to steel their resolve or else they will die.

But suddenly... something unprecedented happened.

[YoU TwOO KeN LeeVe]

Somehow... even without a vocal cord, the boy managed to spew out a coarse, but comprehensible phrase.

This surprised the hell out of the hunters, but it wasn't good news the leader.

Shinhyuk, the fighter who hesitated earlier, looked at his fellow comrade, Shun-il, who nodded in return as if both understood each other intention.

With a pain expression, Shinhyuk spoke, "Leader Iseul... I'm sorry. I would rather not risk it."

"I'm sorry, leader. I'm of the same opinion." Shun-il also agreed.

With bloodshot eyes, the leader, Iseul, screamed at the unexpected betrayal.

"You two!!"

But the two didn't respond. Both fighters walk to the side of the walk and slowly walk around the boy toward one of the doors.

Not.

Then all of a sudden, both the fighters abruptly turned back and dashed toward the boy. The leader also did the same with a smirk on his face.

"Come here!!!" The leader then proceeded to use his taunt skills, even if it's less against intelligent monsters.

"Dieeeeee!!!!"

"Haaaaa!"

Thinking that they had outsmarted the monster, both the fighters shouted with intense fighting spirit.

It turned out, all of this was just a farce!

But contrary to how the Hunters expected, the boy only seemed a little surprised at the unexpected situation.

After all... he had calculated that too.

"Urgyaaaaaa!!! Help meeeee!!"

Shin-il was now on the ground, with his limbs flailing around violently. Out of nowhere, the body of their dead teammate, Myung, suddenly jumped toward Shin-il and bit him on the neck.

"Shin-il!!!! Release him you monster!" Seeing his friend on the ground, Shinhyuk suddenly changed his target toward the revived zombie.

Then in just one second, two things happened...

The boy, with his mouth wide open, spit some liquid in quick succession toward the light sources that illuminated the room. The dark green-purple acid had completely dissolved into everything on its path...

And the room went dark.

The leader, who wasn't used to the sudden loss of light, wasn't able to react to the unexpected attack of another zombie behind him. It was the old scientist!

He was bitten on the ear, before crazily swinging his shield at the assailant with all his might.

It was such a light wound, but for some reason, he felt light-headed.

He was poisoned.

On the other hand, Shun-il, who was totally defenseless earlier by the attack of the zombie, was now rescued by his friend, but his neck was bleeding profusely.

Unless he somehow gets healed or immediate medical attention, he will die.

Breathing a sigh of relief, both didn't realize that on the ceiling, was another monster... the real deal.

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"C-careful! I can't hear anything! The monster might still be alive!"

3 minutes after the battle, Hyuk was now hurrying back toward the experiment room, this time... with reinforcement.

There was a total of more than 30 hunters following closely behind Hyuk, with 3 being A-ranked hunters.

The boy wouldn't stand a chance against this mini army of superhumans.

Aware of the grave situation, no one was taking the situation lightly. A monster that was capable of wiping an entire team that had the capability to raid a C ranked alone, was definitely not to be underestimated

They only got one shot. They either win or die.

"Ready, on a count of 3... 3... 2... 1..." An A-ranked team leader, who was also a tanker, began to count down.

*Bam*

Kicking the door strongly to the point where it went flying, everyone went into a combat stance.

But what they saw... was a pandemonium. Some weak-willed hunters, who saw it, couldn't hold themselves and puked. On the other hand, the more battle-hardened hunters' face tightened instead.

Regardless... it was going to be a rough battle.

In front of them, the once beautiful and futuristic room, was now dyed in the color of blood. Pieces of guts and limbs were scattered everywhere. Not a single soul was moving. Worse... none of the dead bodies were even in whole, and what they all had in common was that... all the head was decapitated.

An eerie silence descended among all the hunters. Everyone was dead...

*Creak*

Suddenly something just moved, making everyone jolted in response.

But it wasn't a monster that made the movement... it was the A-ranked tanker who was laying on the ground, with his chest armor caved in.

He wasn't dead. He was alive!

"... the monster is dead..." Iseul said slowly in a whisper, as if he was nearly on death's door, before passing out. He was missing 2 legs and the right arm, with bites mark surrounding his body. He was in terrible condition.

Hearing his words, everyone's face brightened. They didn't have to fight anymore!

"Medics! Healers! Help Leader Iseul! Hurry!" One of the A-ranked leaders cried out, but he didn't need to as the healers were already on their way.

"He's in stable condition, sir. But he's going to be unconscious for another couple of days.

"That's alright. Thanks god it wasn't us who was fighting. What the hell had happened here..." Another A-ranked leader uttered softly before turning his eyes away from the hellish scene.

Everyone shares the same sentiment.

Whatever monster that was in there... it was definitely not normal.

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While everyone was not looking, no one realized that... the only survivor of this tragedy, had a smirk on his face.