Dawn Serpent Journey.

Unlike vampires, ghouls couldn't turn humans into more ghouls. Honestly, if they could, we'd be looking at a buffet line instead of a horror show—thankfully, they weren't that organized.

Sean stood in front of a towering gate, its rusted bars tangled with dead ivy. The sign above read: Verusa Asylum for the Mentally Ill. He smirked, hood pulled low, hands deep in his hoodie pockets. "You'd think for a place this creepy, they'd at least repaint the sign."

Without warning, he sprang upward—weightless, effortless. His feet touched the top of the gate with a ghost's grace, bending slightly as if gravity whispered instead of screamed. Then he dropped.

Inside, the asylum groaned in silence. Heavy steel doors separated the world from the sleeping, the lost, the forgotten. Guards sat behind a monitor bank, slouched, sipping lukewarm coffee. One nudged the other.

"You seen this?" he asked, holding up his phone. A livestream played, voice trembling from a field reporter. "—the Hunters are struggling to contain what seems to be humanoid beasts. Authorities are warning citizens to stay indoors. I repeat, do not—"

A flash. A blur.

A man appeared behind the reporter, soaked in blood. He sank his teeth into her neck as the camera clattered to the ground. Screams echoed until the stream went black.

"...I gotta get to my family, man," one of the guards muttered, voice shaking.

"Yeah. This—this ain't normal. This is like... end times."

BOOM!

A door exploded inward, metal twisting like paper. One of the guards dove aside, just in time. The hallway filled with dust and something that sounded like... breathing.

Back in Seoul, Ethan wandered through the city's forgotten veins, the lonely night crawling alongside him. He stood outside a dusty electronics shop, eyes locked on a wall of TV screens. Every station played breaking news.

But it wasn't the chaos that drew him in.

It was the eyes.

People with glowing, red eyes. His heartbeat faltered for a moment. He didn't know what he was, not really, but he knew those eyes weren't normal. He needed answers. And now, he had a place to start.

Elsewhere in the shadows of Seoul, Saint leaned back in a leather chair inside a minimalist office lit only by the cold glow of monitors. The skyline loomed behind him, glass towers reflecting the late-night storm rolling in. His arms were folded, jacket draped over the chair, a single blade resting on the glass table beside him.

His voice cut through the silence, calm but laced with venom.

"You see the news last night, Mara?"

Across from him, Detective Mara Ivers stood, arms crossed. Her eyes were sharp despite the dark bags beneath them.

She raised a brow. "Which disaster are we talking about?"

"Verusa Island," Saint said. "A portal cracked open at Grid 09. Complete chaos. The Hunters are scrambling to contain it."

He leaned forward, the leather creaking. "It's good chaos—for us. While they're busy playing heroes, we find the boy."

He slid his phone out, thumb tapping the encrypted dial sequence. The device beeped once, then connected.

The screen lit up, revealing a man with a headset and multiple surveillance feeds glowing behind him. His voice was sharp, disciplined. "Sir."

"Did you find the kid?"

"Yes. We picked him up three hours ago at the eastern dock, Port Jin-Su, Sector 4-B. He boarded the Dawn Serpent, a mid-range freight-passenger hybrid that usually hauls cargo between South Korea and unregulated island zones. No official manifests. It's running under the radar."

Saint narrowed his eyes. "Where is he now?"

The man flicked through camera feeds until one landed on a grainy image: Ethan Cross, hoodie drawn tight, sitting near the bow of the ship. Behind him, the sea churned under moonlight.

"Current coordinates place the vessel 47 nautical miles southeast of Seoul's shoreline. Estimated arrival at Verusa's west dock: five hours, twenty-three minutes, assuming no storms interfere."

Saint's smile was slow, calculated. "Perfect."

He looked at Mara. "Let the Hunters play catch-up. By the time they realize what's happening... we'll already be there."

He turned back to the screen. "Prepare our dock. I want boats on standby, eyes on every route. When he lands... make sure he remembers who reached him first."

The call ended with a soft beep, leaving only the sound of rain beginning to tap on the windows behind them.

Ethan sat quietly on the edge of the ship, the salty wind brushing through his hair as waves crashed rhythmically beneath. His eyes narrowed at the translucent screen hovering in front of him, its glow faint in the early dawn light.

[You have 4 hours, 0 minutes, and 12 seconds remaining before the Instant Dungeon opens.]

[Current Location: Aboard the Dawn Serpent]

[Latitude: 37.4975° N | Longitude: 125.9522° E]

[Distance to Verusa Island: 46.7 nautical miles]

[Estimated Time of Arrival: 5 hours, 57 minutes, and 49 seconds]

[Warning: Dungeon will initiate regardless of location.]

[Recommended: Prepare accordingly.]

Ethan exhaled, his breath steady but low.

"So even the sea can't delay it…"

Another line flickered onto the screen.

[Dungeon Difficulty: Unknown]

[Survival Rate: Unavailable]

[Recommended Actions: Rest. Recover. Strategize.]