The moment we crossed the dungeon barrier, the world snapped back into place.
Sound returned first.Shouts. Sirens. The sharp crackle of system notifications cascading through the air like rain.
Hunters were running toward the Broadwood Gate. Medics. Administrators' agents. Barrier technicians.
Too many.
Too late.
The forest behind us sealed completely, the metal gate slamming shut with finality. No cracks. No light. No sign that anything abnormal had occurred.
Except us.
The Predator System pulsed—uneasy.
[WARNING: POST-INSTANCE INSTABILITY][STATUS: MARK ACTIVE][SECONDARY EFFECTS: MANIFESTING]
I staggered.
Not from exhaustion.
From weight.
Something invisible pressed down on my spine, like gravity had decided I was more interesting than everyone else.
The Unknown Predator caught me before I fell.
"Don't fight it," he said under his breath. "The mark isn't an attack. It's an anchor."
"An anchor to what?" I asked.
He didn't answer.
⸻
They separated us immediately.
White uniforms. Cold eyes. Clean authority.
"Name.""Rank.""System status."
I gave them what they expected.
Eliasz Kierski.F-rank.No abnormalities.
The Predator System cooperated—masking, compressing, lying with surgical precision.
[STEALTH PROTOCOLS ACTIVE][MARK SIGNATURE: SUPPRESSED — PARTIAL]
Partial wasn't good.
The Administrator's agents felt it too. I saw it in the way one of them paused when passing me, his gaze lingering just a second too long.
Like he smelled something.
They took the bodies away in sealed bags. They logged Mira as missing. Armin as deceased due to dungeon collapse.
Clean narrative.
The world hates loose ends.
⸻
They let me go at dusk.
The academy grounds were quiet when I returned. Word spreads fast among Hunters, but fear spreads faster. No one approached me. No one spoke.
Good.
The Unknown Predator walked beside me until we reached the dorm entrance.
"This is where we part," he said.
"For now," I replied.
He studied me carefully.
"You don't ask my name."
"I don't need it," I said. "You'll come back when it matters."
A pause.
Then he smiled.
"You're learning faster than you should."
He turned to leave, then stopped.
"One warning, Eliasz," he said without looking back. "The mark will start demanding payment. Soon."
"For what?"
"For being noticed."
He disappeared into the evening crowd like he'd never existed.
⸻
The payment came that night.
I was halfway asleep when the pressure returned—stronger this time. Not crushing. Pulling.
The mark burned cold behind my ribs.
[WARNING: MARK REACTING TO EMOTIONAL STATE][CAUSE: ISOLATION / FOCUS / HUNGER]
My room darkened unnaturally. Shadows stretched where they shouldn't. The air thickened, bending around me like something was trying to listen through the walls.
Then the vision came.
I wasn't in my room anymore.
I stood in a vast, empty plain made of black stone. The sky above was fractured, stitched together with glowing system lines—broken, misaligned.
Something stood far away.
Tall.Bound.Patient.
I couldn't see its face.
But I felt its attention settle on me.
Payment, it pressed—not as a word, but as a certainty.
"What do you want?" I asked.
The Predator System screamed.
[WARNING: DIRECT CONTACT WITH MARKED ENTITY][SEVER CONNECTION — FAILED]
The presence responded calmly.
Balance.
The world shifted.
I saw myself—older, stronger, surrounded by corpses. Systems tearing themselves apart around me. Predators killing predators. Hunger spiraling without end.
This is the cost of only taking, the presence conveyed.Every predator that does not learn restraint becomes prey.
My vision snapped back.
I gasped, clutching my chest.
Sweat soaked my sheets.
The room was normal again.
But something had changed.
The Predator System updated quietly—almost reluctantly.
[MARK EFFECT: BALANCE ENFORCEMENT — ACTIVE][CONDITION: EXCESSIVE DEVOURING WILL TRIGGER CORRECTION][CORRECTION TYPE: UNKNOWN]
I laughed softly.
Of course.
Even monsters hate inefficiency.
⸻
Morning came.
I walked across campus feeling heavier, slower—not weaker, but constrained. Like a blade sheathed too tightly.
Whispers followed me.
"Isn't that the one from Broadwood…?""I heard half his team died.""Didn't the dungeon change after he went in?"
Hatred. Fear. Curiosity.
The Predator System absorbed it all.
But the mark watched.
I entered the training hall.
A new notice glowed on the central board.
MANDATORY REEVALUATION — SELECTED SURVIVORS OF BROADWOOD FOREST
My name was at the top.
Below it, in smaller text:
ADMINISTRATOR-OBSERVED CANDIDATES
The mark pulsed once.
Satisfied.
I understood then.
The dungeon was over.
The hunt was not.
This was the price of being marked:
I could no longer hide in the background.
And whatever I became next—the world, the systems, and the things older than bothwould be watching.