Chap 1

Paris, France. Year 10 of the Gene Era.

In a toilet cabinet, Seth Belüm, a young man with short dark hair, was staring intently at his smartphone, showing a countdown that's been going on for almost 10 years now.

[Current Breaths Taken: (89 999 800 / 90 000 000)]

Soon it would be over, and hopefully, his life would change for the better. If it wasn't for the troublemakers disturbing this special day, it would be a more joyful one.

"Get the fuck out, Blank! We know you're in there!" A man exclaimed from the outside, banging on a public toilet cabinet, his goons with mohawk hairstyle surrounding him.

"Sorry, Mark. Currently busy. Use another cabinet if you got an urgent business going on down there," Seth replied.

"Stop fooling around and open the damn door if you're a man, Blank!"

Seth chuckled. That bastard was too easy to make fun of. "Come on, even you wouldn't be such a fool as to open a door to get yourself beaten up again, right?."

"..." Mark stayed silent, not knowing what to say, then resumed. "Don't care! Open it, you dark hair bastard! Get your homeless ass out of here or I'll tear down this cabinet piece by piece!"

"Sure. I'd think twice if I were you, though. Androids will not stand still while you destroy public property. But hey, that's your call."

Mark cursed. He knew the bastard was just messing with him. But he also knew androids were everywhere around those parts. If he tried to force open the door, he would definitely get arrested. Moreover, he had to prepare for his next mission.

"Just you wait and see, Blank! Just you wait and see!"

Like he was asked to do, Seth waited and saw nothing but the dirty toilet cabinet. However, he did hear Mark and his goons' steps getting more distant.

'And those guys are supposed to be monster hunters… *sigh* what a joke,' he thought. 'Just how low monster hunters have fallen since the Dark Days?'

Low-rank monster hunters like them sometimes felt bitter about their own lack of talent and bullied others to feel better about themselves.

Unfortunately for Seth, who was known as Blank because of his rankless exclusive skill, he was their favorite target.

An Exclusive Skill was an ability that matched one's evolution path every evolved human had naturally developed after the Blue Plague that ravaged the world ten years ago.

But everyone did not have "convenient" exclusive skills. For instance, Seth had the ability to control... his breathing. Something every human could actually do with some training.

'I swear, I'll get you all one day, you mohawk bastards,' he sighed, and gritted his teeth through the pain of his bruises. Those would heal eventually. Like monsters, after the Blue Plague, evolved humans had gained increased healing capabilities.

What bothered him most right now was the foul smell in the cabinet. He had around 120 million olfactory receptors in his nose, twenty times more than a normal human but less than a previous era dog who had 300 million olfactory receptors.

His current situation was comparable to someone who was sticking his head inside a fridge full of rotten meat, maybe worse. Thankfully, with time, he got used to the various scents and even put this asset to good use—not that he had a choice, anyway.

It was his only redeeming quality given by the mutations after all. His exclusive skill was shitty, his genetic level was shitty, even his hair color was considered shitty!

Black hair people were considered weak and laughed at because most of them had died during the Blue Plague. Although that was total bullcrap, most black hair had turned into another color due to mutations. Since weakness was condemned as useless, some people started ridiculing the remaining black hair people, creating the new term "haircism"—at least that's how Seth liked to call it.

'Come on, almost there!' Seth mentally encouraged himself, breathing rapidly to hasten the special occasion, wiping off the accumulated sweat on his forehead.

After all, it was hot inside this small enclosed space neighboring the Great Wall and No Man's land. His extreme focus and rapid breathing didn't help his case.

Seth gazed with growing excitement at the smartphone kindly lent to him by the MHA for his job. It was big, heavy, very outdated, but it had an AI that provided support to collectors, people like him who accompanied hunters during gathering missions.

The AI showed a green screen with neat white writing. On it was the progress of Seth's sole skill that was calculated thanks to the chip that had been inserted by a quick surgery in his chest.

___

[Breathing (Passive)]

Rank:—

Description: You can control your breathing.

Evolution Requirement: Breathe 90 000 000 times. (89 999 950 / 90 000 000)

___

'I really wonder how it'll evolve.'

Seth has been nursing his exclusive skill Breathing since the age of 12. Ten years. It's been ten longer years. While others have become figures capable of toppling cities he had been patiently waiting at the bottom of the food chain.

Although that varied from one human to another, on average, a human could breathe up to 23000 times per day, and 8.4 million times a year.

To reach his evolution requirement faster, Seth had tried to breathe around 26000 times per day, sometimes going over that number if possible.

[Current Breaths Taken: 89 999 970/ 90 000 000]

After 10 years of living an apocalyptic life in an apocalyptic world, Seth finally saw a path out of his misery. He had provided for himself when his parents died from the Blue Plague, leaving completely in the period where Humanity struggled to fight back monsters.

Seth's perseverance, courage, wits, and genetically improved body allowed him to survive until now. However, with the monsters getting stronger with the passing years, if he didn't improve soon, Seth knew he might end up in a monster's stomach.

[Current Breaths Taken: 89 999 980/ 90 000 000]

'Let's hope it'll help me get better gene cores.'

By eating gene cores, you could acquire more genes for yourself that, once digested, could strengthen your abilities a step further. If it matched with your exclusive skills, you could even develop new skills. Something that never happened to him.

[Current Breaths Taken: 89 999 990/ 90 000 000]

Despite the poor odds of survival in a new age called the Gene Era, Seth was still alive, even with his dangerous job. Accompanying hunters on gathering missions outside the Great Wall that has been built to protect Paris.

Collectors were simply in charge of gathering and loading such resources into the transport vehicles that would bring them back inside Paris. Resources like wood, minerals, or plants grew much faster than before, resulting in a high demand of man power to gather them since they were necessary for various vital businesses.

With a high death rate, it was a very dangerous job, but to Seth's mind, it was his best shot at survival and evolution.

Why? Because he could acquire monster gene cores by stealthily borrowing them for an indefinite duration from hunters too busy to fight. It's not like hunters loaded with cash needed one or two more gene cores.

With his meager salary, Seth couldn't afford to buy gene cores from the market places. Moreover, he had been saving money for a real weapon later on when he'd acquired a real skill.

People usually became monster hunters for fame, vengeance, riches, power, or all at once.

But to Seth, learning how to hunt monsters was not a dream but a necessity in this new era where survival was never a certainty.

He wanted to obtain enough power for himself to never worry about survival again and to fulfill his parents' last wish for him to continue on living.

'Mom, dad… I miss you both so much.' Despite the years, he had not forgotten their look, their kindness, their wisdom. His face turned grim as he thought about his parents, but something came up that lifted up his spirit.

[Current Breaths Taken: 90 000 000/ 90 000 000]

THROB!

Seth's gene core pulsed strongly, a painful feeling seized his every muscle, bone, and organ as his DNA rapidly changed.

*****

Lore:

"I trembled in fear at the idea of invaders from another dimension. But my scientist side jumped out in joy at the possibility of conversing with other intelligent beings with technology certainly more advanced than ours. However, let's face it, our recent discoveries don't imply a peaceful coexistence. On the contrary. Our hunters are strong, a few capable of rivaling some of the strongest monsters discovered. But will it be enough? I do not know. I can only hope."

Extract from Dr. Collin's Diary, "Gene Era"