Chapter 1

The heavy mechanical doors opened with a faint buzz sound.

A man walked past, his steps bold, unhurried, unlike those of the two scientists that went ahead of him. He could sense the urgency in their pace, their hushed argument and of course, the glances he received from the two guards that joined them.

What do they want now?

Looking around nonchalantly, the facility proved to be far superior and well equipped, it couldn't be compared to the simple weapons armory that used to be here.

The previous owners struck gold selling to Gamora, at least on the surface they did. 

He'd look into it later.

Everything seemed to be state-of-the-art material, sharing striking resemblance with the layouts he'd received for ongoing renovations back home.

So this was what Kim Sung-Chul wanted to do with their lab.

Well it didn't look half bad. It was a good idea to let him lead the project after all.

Flanked by two guards and standing in front of another pair of double doors, the man who'd contacted Trinity greeted him with an amiable smile.

"It's good to see you again Mr Baek Woo-jin, thank you for coming on such short notice."

The brown haired man said, reaching out for a handshake. Firmly grasping his hand in return, Baek Woo-jin responded.

"You can thank Yura for that when you next see her."

He'd been fervently against this whole shenanigan with the Gamora guild right from the start.

They seemed alright on the outside, but were half rotten within, their hands had stuck deep into the underworld long before he ever thought to join a guild himself.

The only reason he did come, was to do an I.O.U he owed.

His aide, Han Yura had to pull at his hair multiple times to get him to follow through in the end.

"I like what you've done with the place, it's more...secure than the last time I saw it."

"You flatter us Mr Woo-Jin, please follow me."

He led the way, flashing an ID over a card reader, Baek Woo-jin followed. His strides calm and his expression unconcerned.

This had better be worth all the secrecy.

A wave of unpleasantness washed over him as they turned a large corridor. It was a familiar feeling, a repulsive one that he recognized almost immediately.

That person was here as well, he'd know his energy anywhere. And it ticked him off like a time bomb.

The indifferent mask he wore gave way, the confidence in his eyes morphed into one of displeasure. He knew Gamora was up to something, but this was the most irritating move they could have pulled.

Baek Woo-jin released twice as much energy as he'd sensed, sending it like a surge, a wrecking ball through the facility.

Everyone around him was gripped by the piercing pressure he emitted. The guards got it hard, they were hit by instant waves of nausea, each felt like falling to their knees despite all four of them being nothing below B-class.

One who managed to take a step forward, was immediately pummeled down by the sheer pressure that came off the guest. His ears blared and a stream of blood rushed from his nostrils. The massive force pressed his throbbing head against the ground, he grunted and struggled, yet only one thought surfaced in his mind.

So this is the power of an S-class hunter.

"Mr Woo-jin, please calm down."

The brown haired man intervened. He moved in front of the crumpled guard, placing himself as a shield between him and the guest who they couldn't afford to annoy any further.

As the senior assistant manager, he wouldn't be able to take responsibility for what would happen if they did.

The scientists were already on the ground, either sitting or kneeling while desperately struggling to breath, and the guards had all turned pale.

This wasn't killing intent, only a glare. Yet so much strength.

The only thing that saved a C-class like him, was a special skill he possessed.

It traded whatever sort of energy around the assistant manager, as a buff, supplementing for his weaknesses rather than being overwhelmed.

It was a power skill of sorts, one Lee Soo-hyun appreciated the most at times like this.

"Hey, Soo-hyun,"

Baek Woo-jin walked closer then placed a hand on his shoulder, leaning in, he whispered something to the manager.

Lee Soo-hyun's skill blared as the buff effect tripled then canceled.

He felt an intense push instantly forcing him down, despite Mr Baek's grip being anything but firm. Heavy beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, pelting down his face as his hands began to tremble.

"don't f**k with me."

Woo-jin walked past, towards the source of the aura that annoyed him.

After he reached a certain distance the pressure vanished, it was only then Lee Soo-hyun realized he'd been holding his breath. 

He immediately went into a coughing fit, gasping for air like the others, a glance up revealed the S-class who casually strolled ahead of them, his hands in his pockets.

'What a bastard.'

He thought, an unsettled frown on his face as he stared at the back of one of Korea's strongest hunters.

'Yeah. He's all yours now guild leader.'

"Since you're here alone, I hope you went easy on my team,"

Kang Dong Woo the guild leader himself came out, along with that piece of trash.

Woo-jin's gaze settled on the man that stood behind Gamora's guild leader.

He looked good as ever, with his back pressed against the wall and his eyes shut, he didn't bother looking up at the person that joined them, he could already tell who it was from earlier; the little brother that despised him most in the world.

"Why am I here Dong Woo?"

The guild leader clenched his teeth when Baek Woo-jin asked the question, he disliked the impolite scoundrel most of all.

But now wasn't the time for that, they'd managed to get both of them here, that was a herculean task in itself.

Now he just needed to be a bit more patient with the runt.

"The same reason he is,"

He nodded towards the disinterested bystander who didn't bother to spare either of them a glance.

"Business."

"You're really crazy if you think I'll do business with Gamora,"

"But you're here anyways, so why back out now. Besides, you won't find what I'm offering anywhere else in the world."

"Shit talk."

The quiet bystander finally broke into their conversation. Kang Dong Woo could feel the veins on his forehead swell at the way these arrogant pricks spoke to him.

But it was time for that.

He calmed himself, this was, like he'd said, a mere business transaction, it wasn't the place for him to get angry.

"You two remind me of my sons,"

Nerve wrecking pressure engulfed him the next second, as both young men stared him down, their eyes carrying the weight of two colossal predators.

But he wasn't a guild master for nothing.

"Come with me if you want to see what I have to offer, if you don't, the exit's that way."

Another set of doors opened with a faint hiss. Baek Woo-jin, annoyed, turned on his heels heading back in the direction he came.

He'd been irritated enough for one day.

But the guild leaders' next words stilled him.

"Mr Woo-jin you will regret leaving now, I assure you."

The words were like bullets, annoying bullets he wanted to grind to powder.

But deep down something did push him, it was an earnest tug, a desire to see the meeting through to the end and learn what it was Kang Dong Woo himself had to offer.

"Let's get this over with, I have better things to do."

The second guy said, walking past the guild leader.

Fuckkk!

Woo-jin decided to follow his own advice and joined them. Besides, his instincts had never been wrong before.

"We call her Trojan 2. She's an unidentified person one of our teams discovered during their last raid. Previously unidentified I mean,"

The look on their faces was priceless.

Shock, surprise, anger, disbelief...

It kept changing as both young men tried to understand what it was they were looking at.

The thing that was sound asleep a single pane away from them.

"As I'm sure you once called her... sister."

Now the real business begins.

__________________________________________________

The apocalypse won't begin with robots, aliens or even zombies, as we always think it would.

But when it does come, it will be just as terrifying as we imagine.

---Rebeccatheopp

It started thirty years ago, with a single dot in the sky.

Then the first gates opened and monsters poured into our world.

They appeared everywhere, in every country and every state, on every continent.

The damage left behind was beyond belief, as humanity faced off creatures that should've only existed in myths and science-fiction.

In weeks, states and whole cities were decimated.

The destruction these beings left in their wake was colossal. Our armies hardly salvaged the situation, nuclear arsenals proved more destructive than helpful.

When the world was on the very precipice of collapse, they appeared.

Humans who'd been blessed with incredible abilities. They could level buildings with a single punch, manipulate elements, and even lift the monstrous behemoths to the skies with a single thought.

Scientists called it an 'Awakening' and the gifted people were called 'Hunters'.

Soon, hunters became humanity's greatest weapons, fighting back the hordes of monsters that came through the gates.

Years passed and the chaos subsided, everyone started again.

The appearance of gates led to completely different discoveries in science; as they were studied in conjunction with the creatures that inhabited them.

Behind the gates were different spheres of existence. These locations were later called dungeons, and dungeons were home to all kinds of creatures that were ranked alongside them.

Precautions were taken to avoid apocalyptic dungeon breaks in the future, some required hunters to clear out dungeons that appeared before outbreaks.

It required them to go in, kill the inhabitant species of a dungeon, and then, the most powerful being inside of it, this particular creature was called an 'Apex'.

Afterwards the dungeon would close within a 24 hour time mark, irrespective of its grade.

The origin of these laws and rules remained unclear, the gates were never fully understood.

An artificial intelligence interface was created to help those who awakened.

It was called the SAI system. Each individual hunter system possessed unique skills that could be earned and developed, assets they could use in real life.

The system was a super artificial intelligence interface that people received from INHA (International Hunters Association) when they awakened.

Dungeons never stopped appearing, and danger always came with them.

In time, hunters rose to formidable positions in society. They became beacons of hope, celebrities and soldiers that led the war against otherworlders.

Different valuable resources were obtained from beyond the gates, even monster corpses were considered useful. This quickly became a source of economic relief for fallen cities, and guilds that supported hunters were formed worldwide.

Technological advancements made things easier. Resources mined from the gates were used in union with technology, to develop ranking systems.

Gates became ranked and hunters were dispatched accordingly. Soon even hunters were ranked as well, and A to G and also S classes were discovered.

After a while the first SS-class hunter made an appearance, this led to the development of Cardis-Exponential theory; where a hunter's class was repeatedly subject to change through adversity or breakthrough.

And so other classes were theorized, the SS-class that could be attained after completely breaking through all human limitations; then the L-class which was hypothesized to be virtually impossible to reach and akin to godhood.

There was a final class that the brilliant scientist, Augustine Cardis hypothesized himself, one that was beyond human comprehension. But it was nothing shy of a myth.

A more precarious situation arose when hunters started running mad.

They called it 'Rampage.'

It was first observed in the case of Akira Ueda, an unrivaled personality and Japan's first S-class hunter. After the death of his team healer during a raid, there were several reports recorded of his mental health spiraling down-wards, until he finally committed seppuku.

Worse cases followed, with hunters ending their lives along with the lives of others. Patterns soon surfaced and researchers delved into the study of these patterns.

It was later discovered that hunters who used their abilities accumulated large quantities of dark energy in their bodies, this energy would lead to what was tagged as a 'burnout'.

A burnout was a state where a hunter was subject to intense backlash and side effects of their abilities. It would lead to a sickness that steadily worsened till the hunter suffered complete break down or chose suicide.

Dark energy was merely another existence that came into the human world alongside gates, its study remained difficult and challenging due to its nature. One universal fact was that it did exist, and it would latch onto hunters like parasites, slowly feeding off them.

Not long after, a separate category of awakeners were discovered, and these humans were called 'guides'.

Guides often awakened as low ranked hunters with little to no skills whatsoever, or they manifested as healers, which in turn masked their guiding abilities. These awakeners were able to dispel the dark energy that accumulated in hunters, which ended the long line of death and insecurity they caused.

It became another great scientific breakthrough, the team of researchers who made the discovery named it the 'Esper-effect'.

Guides were considered more valuable than gold as they were just as rare. The government took the initiative and these awakeners were registered under international and national guild unions.

Guiding rank systems were developed, alongside compatibility technology, as the compatibility a guide shared with a hunter was imperative to achieve successful guiding.

Stability returned to the world and balance along with it. Then in the fall of 2011, the first Pandemonium struck.