By the time Jin Seok-woo stepped through the door of his small apartment, dawn had already begun to stain the sky.
The lights inside were off, but he didn't need them. The apartment was quiet—except for the faint hum of the heater and the familiar sound of small feet rushing toward him.
"Oppa!"
Jin Ha-eun, his younger sister, threw her arms around him the moment he stepped inside. She was barely sixteen, still in her school uniform, and her eyes were red with worry.
He caught her gently, one hand resting on her head.
"I'm okay."
She didn't speak at first. Her fingers gripped the fabric of his coat like she never wanted to let go.
"You said you'd be gone for a short hunt," she finally said, her voice muffled against his chest.
"I know. But something happened. An emergency Rift opened."
She pulled back to look at him. "The news said a Brute appeared. That people died. They showed..." She hesitated, glancing at the still-running television screen in the living room.
He followed her gaze.
On screen, footage replayed of the Brute's destruction—then the camera cut to a blur of motion, a shadowy figure leaping through smoke, too fast for any drone to focus on.
"...An unidentified Apostle single-handedly brought down the Rift-Touched Brute in central Seoul. No god's emblem was detected, and no identification was recovered..."
Ha-eun turned back to him slowly.
"Was that... you?"
He said nothing.
Her eyes widened. She stepped back. "You don't have a god. How could you—"
"I don't know," he cut in softly. "But I have a System. It listens to me. And it's real."
She stared at him. Then slowly, she nodded.
"Promise me," she whispered, "you won't die."
He gave a faint smile.
"I can't promise that. But I can promise I'll fight to live."
Meanwhile, across the city, in a high-rise Guild headquarters...
Seo Ara stood alone in a glass-walled office, the footage of the mystery fighter looping silently on a screen before her.
"No divine signature. No guild backing."
She narrowed her eyes.
Who are you?
That afternoon, Seok-woo's System chimed.
[Level Up: 6]
[New Feature Unlocked: Skill Upgrade Tree]
[Credits: 160]
[Notification: Rift Analysis in Progress...]
[New Rift Detected — Sector 11: Designation B-Rank]
He blinked.
"Already?"
He turned to the dagger resting beside his bed.
There was no rest for someone like him.
Just the next Rift.
To be continued…