MAD HUNTER

Londis heard the voice that split his body in two — one part remained, and the other was cast into hell. He looked around, surprised by the towering buildings that surrounded him.

The architecture was beautiful and massive, yet at the same time terrifying… Gothic and Victorian designs that brought a sense of suffocating dread.

There was the sound of cathedral bells ringing in a horrifying manner, as if their echoes pierced through sound itself.

"Where am I? Who was that person speaking just now? And the strange thing is… these buildings resemble something from the kingdom of Stoktzom… Ugh, my head… there's so much I'm trying to understand, but…"

"The murder of my mother in such a way that every bone in my body burns for revenge… the brutal death of my father… and my brother, I don't even know where he is. The last thing I remember was my head being cut off by that cursed 'Jin Li'…"

Londis was trying to pull himself together, but his voice was heavy, as if his tongue itself could barely move.

"How are you, new hunter, on your first day? Seems a bit odd, but you'll get used to it. No worries," spoke the mysterious figure with a slightly amused tone, as if this place was completely ordinary to him.

"Hunter? Are you talking about me? Who are you? Are you the one who brought me here?" Londis questioned, trying to understand who this person was.

"I expected only Abraham to have a brain. Looks like you've got one too," the figure replied, ending his sentence with a provocative, bizarre laugh.

"Hey, you bastard… tell me how you know me, and how you know my brother too… Answer me!" Londis clenched his fists with all his might, his eyes glowing golden as he glared at the mysterious man.

In the middle of the ruined street, where the only light came from burning corpses, someone suddenly placed a hand on Londis's shoulder. His eyes widened… He tried to strike the person holding him, but the figure hit him back with such force that he slammed into the wall of one of the buildings.

Londis rose from the pile of rubble, only to find a huge hole in his stomach. But to his shock, the wound began to heal on its own.

"What?" he muttered in disbelief, staring at his recovering abdomen.

The mysterious figure started clapping and approached Londis… Londis looked at him in shock.

The man was tall, wearing a black Victorian coat, a pointed hat, with long black hair that glowed like fire. But he had no face.

"Beautiful, Londis. Very beautiful. Looks like you have an extremely fast healing ability… That's good. We're going to use you for the hunt."

"Use me? Did you make this hole in my gut just to show me I can heal?" Londis was furious, gripping his muscular stomach.

The faceless man stood near Londis, looking toward a large pile of stones. Londis stared at him, even muttering to himself:

"What? How did that bastard reach me so fast?"

"These stones are of excellent quality… My father used to make me destroy rich men's houses just to collect them," said the faceless man, placing two fingers on his chin as he gazed at the rubble.

"I asked you a question, bastard. Why won't you answer?" Londis tried to strike him, but the man blocked the punch with just his index finger.

Londis was shocked. The faceless man casually pushed his finger aside, then stepped back.

"Hahaha, man, forgive me. I've gone on too long… You're now in these nightmares… and the one you're in is the first nightmare… It's called the Hunters' Ward. If you want to survive this nightmare, you must complete ten missions in ten regions to return to life," he explained, waving his hands with a bizarre laugh.

"So, if I complete the mission, I can return to my kingdom?" Londis asked, surprised, his tone exhausted from overthinking.

"That's right, that's right, oh, uncrowned emperor," the faceless man said with a cheerful tone.

'I guess I don't have another choice… I just have to do what this weirdo says,' Londis thought to himself, looking at the mysterious figure's glowing hair.

"Good, good, hunter. Now take those weapons over there and go hunting," the faceless man clapped joyfully as he spoke.

Londis looked at two swords, seemingly in a powered-up state, almost as if they had a second transformation. He also noticed a strange object he couldn't quite recognize. He picked it up and asked the faceless man, confused:

"What is this piece of metal?"

"Oh, forgive me, my lord. A strange man like you wouldn't recognize this tool from the future. You know arrows, right? Just press on the curved part inside this semi-circular gap, and it fires a bullet. It's kind of like an arrow… I hope your primitive brain can process what I'm saying," the faceless man explained mockingly.

Londis stared at the gun, which had strange engravings and a black skull dripping with blood.

He placed his index finger on the trigger and suddenly fired a bullet at the faceless man. The man blocked it… with his hat.

"My lord, are you trying to kill me? Hahahaha, don't worry, I can't die anyway… But it seems like you've understood how things work," the mysterious man said seriously at first, then broke it with a ridiculous laugh.

"Mysterious man, I have a lot of questions, and I know you won't answ—"

The faceless man cut him off, raising his middle finger and speaking sharply:

"The questions are obvious. First question: What is this world? Answer: You're in a nightmare — I already said that. But to be specific, you're in the Kingdom of England, more precisely, London… where ten regions are inhabited by monsters. You must hunt them to escape this terrifying nightmare."

"Your next question, who am I? Fair enough… but it's better if you don't know. I'll give you one important piece of information, but keep in mind: if you die here in the nightmare… you'll go to something even worse…"

"The more your insight grows, the more you'll see entities and legends you were never meant to witness," the faceless man explained everything Londis wanted to know. But what truly frightened him was the idea of Insight.

"What do you mean by insight? I don't even understand how it works or how it appears," Londis asked, confused by something beyond his simple understanding.

"The more monsters you kill and regions you destroy, the more your insight increases — allowing you to see things you'll eventually notice… Look at your left palm. You'll find four deep holes. When your insight reaches a high level… crimson blood will begin to flow from those holes… That means you've reached complete insight." The faceless man answered directly in a very firm tone.

Londis looked at his left palm and found the four holes. He clenched his fist tightly, then looked for the faceless man — but he was gone. Londis scanned his surroundings, until the voice echoed again from nowhere:

"Now go, my lord… hunt. You can learn more about this nightmare through writings you'll find in the regions or from certain people. But focus on one thing… the more you thirst for blood, the more your features will disappear. And before I go, you may call me… The Faceless One."

"Faceless One… What a terrifying name — suits him perfectly. And also… how do my features disappear? That's strange. Anyway, I need to focus on hunting to escape this world."

Londis took the sword and slung it across his back, holstered the gun on a strap attached to his pants, and looked at a red cloak. He picked it up from the ground and wore it.

He looked at a giant gate through which you could see the other side… written above it were the words: "Haryamed Zone."

"Looks like this is the first region. Time to go hunt some monsters and get out of this hell," he said, grinning arrogantly.

Londis opened the gate to Haryamed Zone and was hit with a cold, fierce wind — strong enough to shatter the bones of any weak human.

"What is this horrifying wind? I felt like my bones evaporated for a moment," Londis muttered to himself, questioning the violent air.

He crossed through the gate. It slammed shut behind him with force. Londis looked back at it with a sarcastic smile and laughed:

"So you shut the gate? What, did you think I was going to come back out to buy some chicken?"

Londis began walking through a wide alley. On both sides were buildings in a beautiful Gothic style, but corpses were brutally torn apart in front of each house.

Even the horses were slaughtered and hung by their veins on the street lamps that lit the area.

"This place is seriously strange. People and monsters cut in horrifying and weird ways…" he muttered to himself as he reached the end of the alley, where he found a group of figures standing in a circle around a fire.

The area was circular, and at each building, corpses were hung and burned. Londis stood at a distance, observing the group around the fire.

They, who resembled humans, were lifting someone onto a cross — it seemed to be a girl. She screamed, begging for anyone to save her.

These monsters carried guns and swords like Londis and wore long black cloaks with grey hats.

Londis watched in complete silence as the girl screamed at the top of her lungs. One of the monsters spoke in old English, the language Londis used in his kingdom:

"This whore must die. She committed forbidden adultery… she must burn in the depths of hell to atone for what she did."

"I didn't do anything! I didn't do anything! Please, someone, anyone — save me from these monsters. Please, I'm begging you," she screamed so hard that blood began pouring from her mouth.

"Increase the fire to burn this whore!" one of the monsters yelled at his followers.

The fire roared… the girl screamed with all she had, but it was useless. She looked toward Londis, crying. But Londis didn't care about her—he was more focused on the nature of these monsters.

The girl burned… and turned into nothing but ash.

"Poor whore… too bad she was pretty," Londis mocked the girl who had become nothing but a pile of ashes.

As he leaned against the wall, watching them, one of the monsters suddenly screamed from behind and tried to strike Londis in the neck with his sword.

Londis dodged the strike and entered the circular arena, which drew the attention of all the monsters toward him.

One of the monsters pointed at him, shouting:

"Kill this filthy heretic! He's disgusting—kill him now!"

Londis smiled with madness in his eyes and looked at them with his red and blue eyes, saying:

"Whoever wants to go to Hades, come forward now."

The monsters charged at him with swords and large guns that could obliterate a body in one shot. But Londis evaded them effortlessly.

He grabbed the first monster, smashed his head into the ground, and then sliced him in half with his sword. A bullet then came at him from a distance…

Londis dodged it while laughing, then fired a thundering bullet back at the monster. A group of monsters rushed at Londis, but he struck them down with a single blow, destroying them all.

Blood covered his clothes and face. He wore a strange smile as if he was enjoying killing them… his killing intent was so intense that his facial features began to disappear.

One of the monsters fired a heavy bullet at him—it pierced his head and exited through the other side. A huge hole was left in Londis' head… but the wound began to heal.

Londis looked at the monster. Sometimes, humans should fear monsters or anything that exceeds their primitive minds. But that monster, when he looked into Londis' eyes, saw that most of his features had begun to vanish. The monster felt as if hell itself was approaching him.

Londis dashed toward the monster at a speed akin to sound. He grabbed the creature by the neck and lifted it high.

"You should have cut off my head… but you know something? Even if you cut my head off, I won't die… you'll need something much greater to kill me."

When Londis finished his terrifying growl, he quickly tore the monster in half with terrifying speed, so fast that its intestines began to fall onto his head as he laughed.

The remaining monsters began to retreat out of fear.

"It seems you've started to fear me… and you should, because now—"

He didn't finish his sentence. A terrifying creature appeared behind him and landed a powerful blow that sent him crashing into a building. The impact was so strong that the entire building collapsed on top of Londis.

"A pathetic human like you, killing monsters in such a crude and filthy way. Looks like some hunters don't even know what monsters really are," said the unknown creature with a harsh and terrifying voice that made the air tremble.

This unknown being was a monster. He wore a red hat with black stripes. His eyes were wrapped in bandages. He wore a long black cloak… and in his right hand, he held a long sword with a secondary form close to an axe.

Suddenly, the pile of rubble exploded, and Londis emerged—without a face. No features, just crimson blood streaming across where his face should've been.

"You don't seem like a human… or a normal hunter. Who are you?" the unknown monster asked, looking toward Londis in his terrifying state.

"I've come to reap every living soul here… I'm the faceless hunter—Londi, or you can call me… Faceless Gehrman."

And Faceless Gehrman's words marked the end of his chilling introduction… the atmosphere grew darker, and it began to rain violently—black rain poured from the sky.

When the nightmare becomes aware of what's happening… it's time to be very, very careful.