Aiden stared at his hands, his heart beating hard against his chest.
The club should've crushed his hand and smashed through his skull. Instead, his hands were fine, that familiar shimmer clinging to his skin like it had been waiting.
Sword Aura.
"How," he breathed, barely hearing himself. "I'm back. I'm on Earth. This sho—"
[Synchronization Protocol Complete]
The notification appeared in his mind, calm as ever.
[Abilities from narrative worlds require approximately 2 hours to fully integrate with your physical body]
[Current status: 100% synchronized]
[All techniques, cultivation progress, and skills are now accessible]
Aiden's breath caught. Two hours. He'd been back for two days, so the sync had finished long ago. Everything he'd earned in that world, the Sword Aura, the techniques, the cultivation, it was all here. Real. Permanent.
He flexed his fingers, slow, almost afraid, and felt it. Spirit energy. Real, quiet, steady, sitting inside him like it belonged there.
Then the baby screamed.
The sound ripped through his head and dragged him back.
Right. The baby.
Aiden turned and saw the stroller a few feet away, the child crying so hard its face was red. Somewhere behind him an orc roared, glass shattered, people screamed, and the mall kept breaking apart piece by piece.
He couldn't stand there.
He grabbed the stroller, hands shaking, and pushed it toward the back of the shop. His legs felt weak, useless, but he forced them forward anyway. There was a storage room, door half-open, lights off.
A woman was crouched inside, hidden behind a rack of coats, crying into her hands.
"Take the baby," Aiden said, shoving the stroller toward her. His voice came out rougher than he expected. "Lock the door. Stay inside. Don't come out until someone in uniform tells you it's safe."
She looked at him with furrowed brows, "Who are—"
"Please," he snapped. "Just do it."
She nodded fast, grabbed the stroller, and pulled it inside. Aiden helped shove it through before slamming the door shut. The lock clicked.
He stood there for half a second, listening.
Good.
Then he turned back around.
The food court was chaos. Orcs everywhere. Bodies on the floor. Some moving, most not. Marcus and his group were near the escalators, getting pushed back inch by inch. Claire's staff flickered uselessly, the sparks dying as soon as they formed. The tall guy was on one knee, a trail of blood running down his face.
Marcus swung wildly, desperation written all over him, but three orcs kept him boxed in, playing with him.
And at the center of it all stood the chieftain.
Huge, armored and still, like this was entertainment.
Aiden's stomach twisted so hard he thought he might throw up.
He could leave. The thought came fast and sharp. There was a side exit not far from here. He could slip out. No one would stop him. No one even knew who he was.
He wasn't a hunter. He didn't sign up for this. None of this was his responsibility.
His hands clenched.
If he left, people would keep dying. The woman in the storage room. The baby. The idiots by the escalators. Everyone hiding in stores, praying for someone else to show up.
"Fuck," he whispered.
Then louder, anger burning through the fear. "Fuck."
He grabbed a black nose mask from a nearby shelf, pulled it on, and stepped out into the open.
The first orc noticed him immediately.
Smaller than the rest, holding a bent piece of rebar, face twisted with hunger. It charged without hesitation.
Aiden froze.
Every instinct screamed at him to move, but his body locked up, the moment stretching too long.
The orc swung.
Sword Aura flared around his hands before he even thought about it. He caught the rebar mid-strike, the impact rattling up his arms.
The orc froze.
So did Aiden.
Holy shit. That worked.
He twisted and drove his fist forward. The blow caved the creature's chest in with a sound he'd never forget. The orc flew backward and hit a pillar hard enough to crack it.
It didn't move again.
Aiden stared at his hand. That hadn't felt real.
Three more orcs turned toward him.
Oh Shit.
They charged as a group. Aiden's mind went blank. He moved without thinking.
Phantom Step!
His body blurred forward, feet barely touching the ground as different phantoms of himself filled the area. The first orc swung at one hitting empty air. He was already past it.
He spun, Sword Aura coating his hand like a blade, and slashed across its back. The energy cut deep. Blood sprayed, and the creature collapsed.
The second one lunged. Aiden tried to sidestep but mistimed it, his body struggling to adapt to his new found strength. Claws raked across his shoulder, tearing through fabric and skin. Pain flared hot and sharp through him.
He yelled and lashed out, his palm stricking the orc's throat. Sword Aura punched clean through.
The third hesitated.
Aiden didn't give it time to think. He closed the distance, messy, too fast, nearly tripping and slammed his fist into its skull. The crack echoed loud enough to make him flinch.
The orc dropped.
Aiden stood there, chest heaving, blood running down his arm. His hands were shaking. His shoulder burned. But he was still standing.
More orcs turned toward him. Six. Ten. Too many.
They charged.
Aiden met them.
It wasn't clean. It wasn't smooth. He stumbled more than once, mistimed dodges, and took hits he should've avoided. But he was improving and every time he attacked he reaped the life of an orc, Sword Aura made his attacks sharp and deadly. Every strike hit harder than it should. Every block held when it shouldn't.
An orc swung a jagged blade at his head. He caught it with one hand, crushing it's head with the other
Another came from behind. He heard it too late, turned too slow. Its club caught his ribs. Something cracked. Pain exploded through his side and he went down hard, gasping.
The orc raised its weapon for a finishing blow.
Aiden rolled. The club smashed into the tile where his head had been. He swung the blade in his hand wildly, caught the creature's knee, and heard it snap. The orc howled. He scrambled up and chopped it's head off
By the time the last orc fell, Aiden was on his knees, coughing. Blood dripped from his nose. His ribs screamed every time he breathed. His vision swam.
Then the chieftain roared.
The sound rattled his teeth and shook the walls. Aiden looked up and saw it stepping forward, scattering the smaller orcs like they were nothing.
It was nine feet tall. Covered in jagged bone armor, and carrying a weapon that looked like it had been ripped off something even bigger.
B-rank.
Aiden tried to stand, but his legs wouldn't cooperate. He got halfway up leaning on the blade he took earlier before his ribs made him double over, hissing through his teeth.
The chieftain charged.
Each step shook the ground. Aiden forced himself upright and activated Phantom Step. His body blurred to the side.
It wasn't fast enough.
The chieftain's weapon caught him across the chest. The impact lifted him off his feet and sent him flying. He crashed through a shop window, glass tearing into his back, and hit the floor inside so hard he saw stars.
He couldn't breathe. His ribs were definitely broken now. Maybe more than broken.
Get up. Get up!
He rolled onto his side, coughing blood. His vision doubled. The chieftain's footsteps grew louder.
Move!
Aiden pushed himself to his knees, then his feet. Every part of him screamed in protest. The chieftain stepped through the shattered window, weapon raised.
No technique. No clever plan. Just desperation.
Aiden gathered every scrap of energy he had left, every drop of qi, every ounce of Sword Aura, and poured it all into the blade in his right hand. The energy blazed white-hot, condensing into something sharp and deadly.
Heavenrend.
The chieftain swung down.
Aiden swung up.
Light exploded.
The entire mall shook. Glass shattered, the floor cracked. Aiden felt the technique tear through him, ripping away everything he had.
When the light faded, he was on the ground, gasping.
The chieftain stood in front of him, weapon raised.
Then it split in half.
The creature's eyes widened. It looked down at its chest, where a clean line now ran from shoulder to hip.
It fell. Two pieces hitting the ground with a wet crash.
Silence.
Aiden lay there, staring at the ceiling. His entire body felt like one massive bruise. Breathing hurts like hell. Moving was worse, every part of his body begging for rest.
But the chieftain was dead.
Footsteps approached. People emerging from hiding. Voices, distant and muffled.
Aiden forced himself to roll over, and push up onto his hands and knees. Every movement sent fresh waves of pain through his ribs.
He stood, the distant sound of a clap reaching him, as he struggled not to trip over himself.
He didn't know who started it but everyone began clapping and cheering.
Aiden turned and limped toward the side exit, one arm wrapped around his ribs. The crowd split as he passed through their cheers drowning out the pain he felt. So he just kept moving, step by agonizing step, until he pushed through the emergency door and into the cold evening air.
By the time sirens wailed in the distance, he was already gone.
—
Aiden spent the next day in bed, drifting in and out of sleep.
His ribs still hurt, but less than they should've, his body felt very different, the qi in him speeding up the healing. By evening, he could breathe without wincing.
His phone buzzed.
He ignored it.
It buzzed again. And again. And again.
Groaning, he reached for it. The screen was flooded with notifications. Messages. Emails. Alerts from apps he didn't even remember downloading.
He frowned and opened the first one, clicking on it.
A video loaded. It was a shaky footage, filmed on someone's phone. The thumbnail showed the mall.
The title read: UNKNOWN HUNTER SINGLE-HANDEDLY DESTROYS C-RANK DUNGEON BREAK.
Aiden's stomach dropped.
He pressed play.
The video showed everything. Him catching the orc's club, Sword Aura glowing around his hands. Phantom Step carrying him through the horde in a blur. The final clash with the chieftain, light exploding outward as Heavenrend split the creature in half.
The video ended with him limping away,
6.4 million views.
Posted 18 hours ago.
Aiden scrolled down to the comments.
> "Who IS this guy??"
> "No hunter badge. No guild insignia. Is he a rogue??"
> "That movement ability was insane. What rank?"
> "Why was his face covered?"
> "My daughter was in that mall. Whoever this is, thank you."
Thousands of comments. Tens of thousands. The video was everywhere—Twitter, Reddit, TikTok, YouTube, hunter forums.
"Bloody hell," he muttered, watching the view count climb in real-time. "What have I done?"
Ding!
A notification from the system.
[ Hidden quest achieved: Public Recognition]
[ Reward:Book visibility increased]
[Sales rising across all platforms]
[Nabu expresses satisfaction]
[Reward: £5,000 deposited]
[New Quest Available]
Aiden stared at the message.
Then he opened his banking app.
Current Balance: £5,050.47
He laughed. It started quiet, almost a wheeze, then grew louder until his ribs complained.
He could pay rent. He could eat actual food. He wasn't going to be homeless.