"It's been several weeks since the arrest of the *Hero Hunter* and his accomplice….
…and that's about it of the past chaos. Next, let's have a look at rate of increase of fertility in frogs-"
The TV closed in a flash.
"Hey! Why did you turn it off? That was interesting." Seokjin shouted, but not loudly. Because he possibly couldn't have.
Why? He had fought 2, no 3 monsters in the span of a single month. No, not monster from gates, but genuine monsters that hid inside human skin.
And now he was laying down on a hospital bed.
"Too much screen time is unhealthy for you." Harin put down the TV remote on the table next to the white bed.
"That's for children." Seokjin protested, yet Harin stood firm of her obligations.
"It's quite strange how you aren't healed yet. It has been like a week by now, even Mira said to not call her again," She gestured her finger in the air, as if trying to show Seokjin a flashback.
"I will not heal him anymore, my mana gets depleted so fast because of that stupid barrier skill. Moreover, I have better things to do than to heal that vegetable" Harin quoted.
Seokjin did not say anything in retort, his ability as a shield master had a passive skill that would suck in healing mana to store them. Everybody knew that, so, he remained silent.
After a while of silence, Harin finally left the room. The white corridor was filled with people. Some crying, others praying.
They say, hospital hears more genuine prayers than any religious place, and Harin could see it in action.
She walked with her stoic face, a few eyes turned, but most didn't. A celebrity held no priority over someone's loved ones.
"I will visit mom again, after all this." She paced herself to the reception, entangled with thoughts about her sick mother.
Now that she had thought about her, Hajin subtly came to her mind. She was still angry about it. What a piece of jackshit that guy was!
Abandoning his family, doing nothing but beating people up, fighting against hunters, and now, being held in awakener prison.
It sounds like a summary of some kind of novel antagonist, and maybe it wouldn't be wrong to say that.
Suddenly, the ground started shaking. Then, the whole building. She instinctively turned here and there, and just to make sure, she spread out her mana.
"Strange…"
It was, strange. Earthquakes weren't exactly common, and times that they would happen, it was because of a gate occurrence.
This time however, there was no trace of mana override. Simply put, no sign of a gate opening.
"Dammit!" she cursed, before once again looking around, the people were starting to panic, even if this wasn't a gate occurrence, but an earthquake. The magnitude was still enough to trample over the building.
"I can't take out everyone out the building, the several people in the ICU will die."
Taking everyone out was not a great option, so she choose the second best. Prevent the building from collapsing.
She threw out both her hands, as mana erupted from beneath her feet. The shadowy-blue mana changed its shape, turning into what looked like a giant snake.
Incredible in length yet thin in width, it rushed outwards in a flash. The snake wrapped its entire body around the building. Just then, the snake seemed to disappear, as if joining itself into the building.
The walls were reinforced with mana, and the shaking was no longer a concern.
"Look! It's hunter Harin!!"
"Oh my god.."
"We are safe!"
"She stopped the building from collapsing!"
The cheering of the people echoed the entire hall, some shouted while some sighed. All in relief.
Soon, the earthquake stopped. Harin put down her hands, exhaling heavily in exhaustion, holding up an entire building took the toll on her, especially when she had recovered just a day ago.
The people surrounded her, but she had no interest in flaunts right now. She gently pierced through the crowd and headed straight for the room Seokjin was in.
As she reached the door, she realized that the mana from the building had disappeared.
"Strange.. the mana shouldn't have disappeared so quickly."
But it was, the walls, which were glowing a faint blue, showed no sign of any colour other than white.
Skeptical, she entered the room. But what she found wasn't just Seokjin. There was another man in the room, standing near the window and staring out the blue.
Harin recognized him. That tall build, and the stupid white hoodie in the middle of may. That was Lucas.
"What are you doing here." She asked, stepping forwards towards the bed.
Lucas turned, his hands in his hoodie pocket. "Well, initially, I came to visit Jin. But I think we have bigger fish to cook here." He took out his hand from his pocket and pointed his thumb at the window, or rather what was outside the window.
That's when Harin's eye fell on it. The thing Lucas was staring at. It was a gigantic tower, so tall it made the skyscrapers look tiny. It pierced the clouds like an omen of death. Yes, that was the best way to describe it, the black tower. That was the black tower.
"W-What is that?!" Harin shouted, reaching closer to the window to get a better look just when Seokjin followed up with an answer.
"Looks like a tower to me"
Lucas and Harin gave him a deadpan look.
"Don't think this is the time to joke around, I feel like I read about this in some kind of nov-"
[DING!]
"--!?"
Suddenly, the system window opened up, for the three of them. No, for the entire world. For every single hunter.
[The black tower has erected.]
[Would you like to enter the tower?]
[Y/N]
Seokjin spoke first. "Y'all got this too?"
Harin nodded, Lucas didn't. he was too caught in by the message that it felt as if he was diving into the screen.
---
Hajin. Jinwoo.
"I will go with Hajin." Hajin said. He tapped nonsensically on the status screen.
He had also received the same message. He turned to the shiny ceiling of the prison room. Unfortunately, he had grown quite fond of that, it looked quite nice to be exact.
"Guess you weren't lying, huh."
[Do I look like that kind of person to you?]
"Absolutely"