New York never slept.
With its skyscrapers erected like the ribs of a steel and gss giant, this city pulsed like a living organism. On the streets, the traffic was always intense, with horns and sirens among the din of voices from the crowds living their urban lives. But that night, another sound imposed itself over the others — screams.
"Ahhhh! Run! They're coming this way!"
"I don't want to die!"
"Mom! Has anyone seen my mother? Sniff... Mom?!"
On the corner of 32nd and 6th Avenue, a portal, enveloped in a bluish aura, floated a few centimeters above the asphalt. The portal shook like a watery mirror when touched, expanding and contracting erratically as it cracked.
The cracks signified what humans feared most: a portal breach.
Normally, portals would be closed before reaching this stage, with a designated guild doing the job. But the Hunters couldn't act in New York — at least not officially. Because of this policy, the streets were under attack.
The breaking of a portal didn't mean that all the monsters inside the dungeon would be released immediately, but that the once one-way bridge had become two-way. Now, the monsters could cross over to Earth. When this happened, the boss usually sent a small horde of monsters as scouts. The problem was that even a small horde of monsters was terrible when there were no Hunters around.
For now, there were five Night Gargoyles, Rank-D monsters. Their long, curved heads were covered in skin as bck as polished obsidian. The eyes of these monsters, three on each side of their skulls, showed no recognizable emotions apart from hunger. Perhaps that's why they attacked without tactics, driven only by a primitive desire — or a voice in their heads — that told them to kill.
*Pow! Pow! Pow!*
The policemen opened fire on the Night Gargoyles.
The bullets hit the monsters squarely. However, the result was disheartening. With skin as tough as steel, normal bullets had no effect other than to irritate them. For the monsters, bullets from firearms were like insect bites.
"Damn it, they won't stop!" one officer shouted, reloading his pistol as he reached for cover.
"Cover! Someone give me cover so I can get out of here!"
"Arrrghw!"
A terrified scream cut through the night as one creature fpped its wings and flew out with its velociraptor-like cws to grab a man who was trying to run.
It was then that a red and blue figure fell from the sky, holding onto the creature's cws with his bare hands. "Hey, ugly! How about you go back to the hole — I mean portal — you came from?"
"It's Spider-Man!" the policeman saved in time shouted, recognizing the figure in the costume that covered every inch of his skin from head to toe.
However, Spider-Man quickly noticed that the Night Gargoyle had incredible strength, and he was dragged backward. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the policeman he had saved had already run, so he threw his own body slightly to one side and let the Night Gargoyle go forward.
The Gargoyle nded heavily against a New York City police car, denting the metal with its weight and force. It shook its head, a little disoriented, but was already preparing to attack again.
Spider-Man gritted his teeth behind his mask: 'This will not be easy.'
He threw up a web and grabbed it, moving to dodge the onsught of another Night Gargoyle with superhuman agility. His moral code always complicated battles like this — he couldn't simply kill these creatures just because they were judged to be monsters. That meant he had to be creative, to find ways to contain them.
But how do you contain something that apparently feels no pain?
To help the cops survive, Spider-Man moved between the Gargoyles, punching them and shooting webs at them to grab the attention of each of the five.
The problem was that they were dumb individually but cunning predators as a group, and they surrounded him.
"Ah, man..." He realized his mistake when he was in the middle of the five at the intersection of the avenues.
One creature jumped. Spider-Man shot out a web to stop it, but another came from the side. Its cws were aimed at the hero's chest. At that distance, there was no time to dodge, even with his spider-sense.
And then something fshed across Spider-Man's vision. It wasn't a web; it wasn't a bullet. It was something sharp.
A bde passed inches from Spider-Man's face and struck the bck skin of that Night Gargoyle, causing the creature to shudder before its body was reduced to an inert heap. A clean cut with a bluish trail.
Spider-Man didn't see where the bde came from, nor did he sense it with his spider-sense. Knowing that the monsters still surrounded him, he cast a web to escape. And this was surprisingly easy. Strangely, the Night Gargoyles didn't follow him. He nded on top of a pole to observe what had happened.
Then he noticed that, amid the monsters, a shadow was moving—a man in a bck hood. He moved as if he were a professional dancer, but with daggers. There were no sounds of footsteps, and each blow was brutally efficient. No wasted movement. No misses.
Peter Parker, the boy behind the Spider-Man costume, felt a chill. Not a shiver like he normally felt when he was fighting, but a natural shiver.
_
[Notification!]
You have defeated a Night Gargoyle.
You have defeated a Night Gargoyle.
You have defeated a Night Gargoyle.
XP gained: 600.
Current level: 57 (32%)._
Sung Jin-Woo wiped the bde of his dagger on his jacket sleeve and looked at the st two Night Gargoyles. His eyes quickly analyzed their movements before going into battle.
'They're not very smart but wild enough to be troublesome.'
Jin-Woo advanced. His speed, thanks to his level and the active skill called [Sprint], made his movements a complete blur to ordinary eyes. Then he slipped between the two gargoyles, dodged their cws, and his bdes sshed upwards as he leapt, cutting the creatures' necks. One of them fell to the ground, but quickly became just a pile of bck cloud.
Another notification arrived.
Even without intelligence, the st Gargoyle felt an instinctive fear in the presence of that human. Fortunately, it didn't have time to fp its wings to escape. Sung Jin-Woo turned the dagger in his left hand, holding it in reverse, and plunged it straight into the creature's throat.
+
[Notification!]
You have defeated a Night Gargoyle.
XP gained: 200.
Current level: 57 (34%).
+
The policemen, who had been firing unsuccessfully before, were now looking over the hoods of their partially destroyed cars. They were stunned, looking at the stranger who had cleared the area in seconds.
"Could it be a hunter?" one policeman asked the other, in shock.
"Obviously..."
However, there were ws in this city, and some of these ws had to be followed to the letter by certain officers of the w.
"Hey, you! Stop right where you are!" a policeman pointed a pistol at the hooded man. "According to New York State Special Law, hunters are prohibited from using their powers on state soil! Please pce your hands above your head and surrender so that the w can mete out the punishment!"
The first man's excmation was the cue for the others, who hesitantly stood up and pointed their guns at the man who had saved them.
"Hey, hey, guys! What are you doing? He just saved our necks!" Spiderman raised his hands in a conciliatory manner and tried to calm them down. "I mean, he technically did something illegal, but hey, you saw what he did!"
The policemen exchanged uncertain gnces.
"It doesn't matter. The w is clear! A bunch of civilians died st week on the Brooklyn Bridge because one of them was 'testing' their powers!"
"I know, I know, but..."
Taking advantage of the distraction Spiderman had created, the hooded man disappeared. It wasn't a move too fast to be seen, no. He simply disappeared.
The policemen panicked: "HE'S ACTING! SHOOT!"
The collective hysteria caused most of the policemen to pull the triggers. Shots hit the rubble, others ricocheted off the metal of the abandoned civilian cars. But they didn't hit the mystery man.
The shots only stopped when a thundering sound came from the sky, followed by a heavy, metallic sound. The policemen looked up and saw a man in iron armor painted red and gold. A wave of hot air and soot spread around the point of impact as he nded.
"Iron Man..." someone whispered.
The helmet turned slightly, its bright blue eyes scanning the situation. Crumpled cars. Cracked asphalt. A cracked portal.
"I've been informed that a dungeon breach has occurred," Tony Stark said. "Where are the ugly ones?"
"They've already been defeated, sir," a policeman replied.
"And what exactly were you shooting at?" he turned to look at the policemen behind the cars.
The men in blue uniforms seemed uncomfortable answering. Thanks to their silence, Spiderman emerged from the rear with a raised hand, waving at Ironman.
"Mr. Stark, I..."
"Kid, are you here? Can you tell me what happened?" Tony asked, almost relieved to have someone who could tell him exactly what happened.
"Well... There was a hunter here. He was the one who solved the problem. He was fast, strong, but then... poof! He disappeared."
Iron Man sighed. "These hunters insist on acting where they shouldn't... This town already has too many heroes. Well, at least nothing went wrong this time." He turned his head towards the unstable portal and crossed his arms. "Good... Now, I'll have to sort out this mess before the monsters come out again."
Tony turned to Spiderman, pointing at him.
"And you. Yes, you. Go home and do your homework or whatever it is you do when you're not jumping between buildings. I told you these portals are too much for you to handle. You have my number. You need to call me when one of them breaks. I can't be at every portal in the city, but I'll try to close all the ones that are breaking."
Spiderman looked down at his torn clothes. "Right, right... I'll be right there."
He shot out a web and went swinging through the city, as he knew Ironman could handle that portal. However, as he passed one of the nearby buildings, his eyes caught sight of something on top of a water tank. This person was without a hood, but Spiderman recognized the hood. It was him.
Tall, almost two meters, with broad shoulders and bck hair.
Spiderman didn't hesitate for a second and went to find out who this man was. "Hey, you!" Spiderman excimed after nding on the terrace of the building where the water tank was.
Sung Jin-Woo looked at Spider. "Ah, the weird guy from earlier... What? Come to thank me for saving your life?"
Spiderman was surprised to see that man's face up close. He was... young. Very young.
"Ah, the weird guy from earlier... What? Come to thank me for saving your life?" asked Sung Jin-Woo with his hands in the pockets of the gray jacket he was wearing.
"Thank you? I don't... I mean, okay, thanks for your help." Spiderman had almost no vanity, so he bowed his head a little and thanked him. "Now, what was all that about? How did you do all that?"
"I'm sure you already know the answer to that, but..." Jin-Woo took a deep breath. "I can say it out loud if that's what you want to hear. Yes, I'm a Hunter. And yes, I also know it's illegal. I wouldn't have interfered if the other weirdo had arrived earlier."
Spiderman scratched the top of his head in confusion, thinking for a second before realizing that the 'other weirdo' Sung Jin-Woo had mentioned was Ironman.
"Hey! You can't call him that!"
"Why not? You're all weird for wearing those clothes with exaggerated colors," Sung Jin-Woo said, as he approached the edge of the water tank and plummeted, nding perfectly upright below.
At that moment, even the Spiderman costume's lenses widened. Then he did it and nded in front of Sung Jin-Woo without a problem.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Spiderman stepped into Sung Jin-Woo's path. "I think we got off on the wrong foot. What do you say we introduce ourselves? I'm Spiderman. What's your name?"
"Spiderman? Seriously, I almost didn't notice the spider on your chest. Look, Spiderman, you seem like a nice guy and all, but I don't think it's very trustworthy to tell you 'heroes' my name."
Sung Jin-Woo was in the right. After all, ever since that night of the merging of the spheres, the Hunters had been seen as the new problems of this world.
*
S.H.I.E.L.D Floating Aircraft Carrier, May 18, 2016 - 21:09 -
*PEEMM**PEEEMMM**PEEEMMM*
"Code Red! Code Red Alert!"
The sirens all over the aircraft carrier were resounding wildly, and Shield soldiers were running everywhere to conduct the standard procedures for a Code Red.
In the aircraft carrier's operations room, the dozens of holographic screens were fshing red too, and the workers didn't know exactly how to proceed because their devices couldn't identify what the hell was going on. The temperature parameters in the atmosphere, the magnetic poles, and even the gamma radiation were too votile to measure or organize logically.
Just then, the main door to the operating room opened, and a bck man with an eye patch entered.
"What's going on? Report, now!" Nick Fury excimed.
A man in a white dress shirt and square gsses was working on a computer near the entrance. He looked at Nick Fury and said:
"Sir, the sensors are out of whack. They're reporting that there are massive amounts of different types of energy being moved around in the Earth's core, in the atmosphere, and also in the Earth's crust. The only other time I saw something simir happen was when..."
"Thanos snapped and used the Infinity Gauntlet three times in one day."
"Exactly, but what we need is on a much crazier scale."
Suddenly, footsteps approached from behind Nick Fury. He turned to see who it was and saw a middle-aged Caucasian man. He was holding a phone to his ear, so he pulled it away from his ear and held it out to Nick Fury.
"Commander, it's the President. He wants to speak to you directly."
Nick Fury took the phone and had to calm the President of the United States down regarding what was going on because neither the Department of National Defense nor the Department of Space could expin that data.
Over the next few days, governments around the world didn't have it easy. Dozens of mysterious portals appeared as masses of blue mist that pierced through reality, connecting it to different dimensions, usually arenas or caves with complex byrinths. These portals were of different sizes and appeared in over a hundred different countries.
It was soon discovered that inside these portals, there were monsters that looked like they had been taken straight out of a fantasy book. Goblins, Orcs, armor that walked on its own, and, worst of all, the Bosses of these portals.
In the world of Marvel, there were video games, so the concept of the dungeon was well known. So, of course, it didn't take them long to understand the dynamics behind the portals. If the Boss died, the portal would close after a few hours. No secret there.
However, the strength of each dungeon varied greatly and was still impossible to determine precisely.
To make matters worse, most firearms were completely useless, even for low-level dungeons. Hundreds of military personnel from all over the world died before it was realized that fighting portals with firearms would not be possible.
Without a Pn B and with the portals under government supervision, the heroes had no way of using their powers to help. This led to Day 7, that night, the day Marvel found out about the terror of the portal breaches and the deliberate chaos that nearly engulfed the entire world in fmes.
However, the heroes could finally help in any way they could, and most of them, although they didn't have the right weapons to kill those monsters, had superhuman powers that made the job easier.
This series of portal breaches brought relevance to one man, an old man who had been insane and was imprisoned in South Korea. Go Gun Hee was his name, someone whose identity in this world did not exist, and he had warned the Seoul Police at the time of his arrest about the great danger of the portals.
No importance was attached to Go Gun Hee's words because the game had completely changed. If before the Hunters like him were the ones fighting against Invaders from another world, now the Hunters were the Invaders.
The big problem was that not all the Hunters were from Sung Jin-Woo and Go Gun Hee's world. One example? Myself.
I was a beautiful admirer of these two worlds until I woke up in my small university apartment, with only a few pieces of furniture, and when I saw the news on TV, I could hardly believe that what I had dreamed was real. The contract I'd signed with that FUCKING guy hadn't just been a dream.
