Hunter Association

It's January 2nd 2024, I've skipped through a whole day just by sleeping, quite reasonable because I didn't sleep at all yesterday. I check the internet to see if there's anything new. 

"Oh look at this! Let's see... America has established an official Hunter Association?"

I get up and exit my house. On the way there, I see some crackheads using drugs.

"What a shitty society we're in." I mumbled.

A few minutes later, I arrive at the Association, it's extremely huge. Upon entering the building, I'm greeted by the receptionist.

"Hello sir, what can we help you today?

"Uhm, I heard this place is the Hunter Association, can I apply to become a hunter?"

"Right this way sir."

The receptionist leads me to a room, she opens the door and the first thing I see is more than hundreds of people waiting for their turn.

"Is it supposed to be this huge?"

"The amount of people here is smaller than yesterday evening sir."

I go to a random chair and sit down.

From behind, a guy touches my shoulder.

"Hey dude, you know how long this is going to take? I'm Alan Vargas by the way."

"No, but nice to meet you, my name is Diego Sarrono."

We chatted for an hour about our achievements. I kept a secret of my skill because he might use me. In the conversation, he said that his skill is Identification and told me to give him my hand, I have no idea why he asked.

"Oh it's finally my turn, see you soon Alan."

"Good luck!"

As I enter the room, only one man is sitting on a chair. The room is extremely dark, I can barely see anything except for the yellow light shining into the room through the window and the man with a yellow glass.

"Take a seat, Diego."

(What is this? To catch a predator? And how does he even know my name? Probably written in a file or something.)

I sit down and he starts to question me. The more he asks, the more I feel pressured. It went from "Why do you want to become a hunter?" to "What do you think your purpose in life is?" and "Do you think your parents are proud of you?"

"How was your life before the tower?"

Surprised by that question, I started to think.

***

It was the year 2018, Diego was only eleven years old at that time. He was a nice kid, an honest one to be exact. Diego made a vow, to never swears in his life.

He used to get straight As, but things take a dark turn when students start to pick on Diego for being fat. He had to endure it until late 2019, that's when Coronavirus started which caused everyone to stay home for three months.

Diego decided to train and in just those months he went from 67kg to 49kg and 5"5 to 5"8. An abnormal decrease in weight and increase in height.

When he returns to school, everyone is shocked by his glow up and no one dares to bully him again because he also learned how to fight.

***

"It was normal."

"Okay, you can go now."

"Thank you, sir."

I exit the room and gesture Alan to go inside.

Returning back to the receptionist, she gave me a Hunter Card that included some of my details.

Wondering what I shall do now, I look up at the sky, sadly it's covered by the Tower which gives me an idea. What's better to do than climb the tower?

While walking, I open the system and see a feature called [LEADERBOARD].

I open it out of curiosity and it shows a variety of planets.

"So that's what the creator meant by 'Planet 129'. I wonder what Planet 1 looks like."

I scrolled for a while a finally saw my planet's leaderboard.

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[LEADERBOARD]

1st: Zen Vargas - 5th floor

2nd: Armando Zuyan - 5th floor

3rd: Mark Ethan - 5th floor

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A while later, I arrive at the tower and without hesitation, I go to the second floor.

[Teleporting…]

[Welcome to the Second Floor.]

This time, instead of a field of grass, it's a battlefield, with dead bodies of people lying all over the floor. I look behind and see a wolf about to attack me.

Luckily I blocked its bite but my sword is shattered. As the wolf comes closer, blood starts to flow up my brain, making it think harder. I look around and notice there are weapons everywhere so I grab one.

[Activating 'Time Manipulation', your mana has been exchanged for 5 seconds of usage, time will now be stopped]

In the panic, I throw a dagger at the wolf, a spear, a sword, anything I can find on the floor, even if it's an armor piece. If it's sharp, it's deadly.

[5 seconds have passed, time will now resume.]

After time continues, the weapons that were thrown, all pierce the wolf, killing it instantly. Only a disturbing scene of an animal stabbed with more than ten metals.