Ten years. To the citizens of Oakhaven, a decade was just a fragment of time. To Shin Van Croft, it was an eternity spent in the furnace of survival.
Shin stood at the edge of the northern cliffs, his eyes—cold, calculating, and devoid of the warmth of youth—gazing down at the city lights. Ten years ago, the Van Croft caravan was a symbol of prestige. Now, it was a ghost story told to scare children. He could still smell it: the metallic tang of blood mixed with the suffocating scent of ozone as the shadows tore his world apart.
[Flashback: The Training of a Ghost]
He remembered the first three years in the "Dead Zones." To master the Black Lightning, Shin had to endure what no human was meant to survive. He didn't just practice; he lived in a constant state of calculated self-destruction.
His training wasn't with a wooden sword. He stood under the mountain waterfalls during the great storms, forcing his body to become a lightning rod.
[Crackle... BOOM!]
The strikes were brutal. Each hit felt like molten lead poured into his veins. His master, a man who lived in the silence of the void, had told him: "To control the lightning, you must first die by it."
Day after day, Shin pushed his #HIGHIQ mind to analyze the frequency of the bolts. He mapped the way the energy flowed through his nerve endings, turning the agonizing pain into a structured internal network. He learned to "store" the energy in the scars that now crisscrossed his back—scars that were the price of his current power.
[End of Flashback]
Shin looked at his palm. He didn't see skin; he saw a weapon.
「 "The ashes of the past are the soil of my revenge," 」 he whispered, his voice as sharp as a blade.
He moved toward the city gates with a silence that defied his physical presence. The guards didn't even notice the faint hum of energy in the air as he passed. In Oakhaven, they thought they were safe behind their runic walls and violet mana. They didn't know that a monster they had created was walking through the front door.
[Zzzzzzt...]
A small spark of Black Lightning flickered at his fingertips. It was no longer an erratic force; it was a loyal hound, waiting for the command to bite. The #ANTIHERO had returned, and Oakhaven would soon learn that silence is the most terrifying sound of all.