章 19: Scent of Civilization
Heavy downpour.
Ambulance sirens.
"—Are you okay? Can you hear me?"
Woo. Woo.
Police officers were all around.
A yet-to-be-identified young student jumped from the school roof…
"Poor thing…"
"I heard he was constantly bullied."
He hit his head, and his spine is also in critical condition. Looks to have lost a lot of blood. Is it a suicide or a cold-blooded murder?
"Can you hear me? Can you remember your name?"
***
Tonight was a nightmare for the Sangrok Sports High School.
Even through the night of heavy rain, the teachers all huddled up inside their staff room, not allowed to leave. Their soft and worried mumbles echoed around silently.
Meanwhile, some students were also held back in the classes. Even late at night, the lights of the lonely classrooms were still bright against the downpour outside.
A student from the second year of high school, class 2-A, named Seo Jin Hu, had killed himself by jumping off the roof. All of the teachers were being accused.
The media was on fire.
This was enough to create chaos for years in a school like theirs, where a Hunter—a human who fought against demons that came out of Gates—was born once in a while.
Some teachers might even lose their jobs, if not their lives.
Everyone was somber.
…
Three students, two boys and a girl sat on a bench in the corridor outside the staffroom, each of their faces filled with apprehension.
"Maki, what did your parents say? Are they coming?" the thinner of the boys, Shiden, asked. His hands were clasped against his head as he sat.
Maki, the girl, was a sobbing wreck. She said, "I don't know. I don't know…"
The fatter youth, named Fulan, asked out of nowhere, "Did Jin die? Right in front of us?"
The hardest of the three, Shiden, who had not yet cried, also broke down at the words, and his hands bled from his tight grip. Fulan and Maki looked at his trembling self, and their last emotional barriers began to break.
"We have to live with this. We—We didn't kill him after all, we just, we just bullied him," Shidei said, his voice unable to cover his quiver.
…
Just as the whole school was crumbling more harshly than the rain outside, suddenly, a shimmering blue portal appeared above the roof, and many people immediately noticed it.
Screaming cameramen of the media immediately turned their focus toward that, and cameras flashed. Soon enough, frightened cries of disbelief echoed.
"A Gate has appeared above Sangrok Sports High School! Reporting evacuation and asking for immediate help from nearby Hunters—!"
The three students had a clear view of the roof from their corridor through the huge glass windows, and all three of them sat rooted in their positions.
They mumbled each other's name in fear.
From inside the shimmering portal, a demon covered in green blood walked out.
It wobbled.
Its breath was ragged, and for a second, the creature turned and looked straight at the trio. They felt their own breath get stuck inside their throats. On the demon's back was another similar demon.
Strange, golden eyes moved past them.
***
Mark's gaze moved around, and he took in everything around him in just a minute: camera, attention, fear, rain, police, the smell of perfume that tingled his nose, followed by the smell of petroleum and petrichore.
Humans.
… Earth?
I am back on Earth?!
His gaze moved onto the three students, and he immediately changed his opinion. No. Danger. Staying here was dangerous.
The trio each had their own unique ability, and if they worked together, his chances of survival were abysmal. This was no Earth.
But something is weird. Why do they seem so weak?
He needed to run. He didn't have time to contemplate, though. Cameras were flashing, and he was toast if there were more people with superhuman abilities like the three students.
Enemies were on their way!
This was no Earth and he had already become the attention of the world. Moving towards the back, Mark jumped out of the school roof onto a tree and then vanished into the mountains below it.
First, he will find out a nice place and understand the world before he did anything. He liked to be cautious.
"Blood will leave a trace… I need to change route…"
His blood loss made even him somewhat dizzy, and he knew he had to find somewhere to rest and somehow heal. Otherwise, he will die regardless of what he did.
Thankfully, his high physical stat meant his body was generating blood on its own and since his wounds weren't that deep, it was also being healed.
"The fucking giants…" He muttered, but even speaking made him cough out blood.
His insides hurt so much. Everything seemed to have been rattled.
More than anything, though, he could feel a thin membranous layer around Dona, 5 meters in diameter. He was in the Other World now, and he would die if he left that 5 meters.
Dona was his Dungeon, and he was inside it; if he left, the chance of his death was probably a hundred percent. Outside the 5 meters, the Will of this world would notice him.
Sprinting as fast as he could, Mark sighed in relief as he heard the sound of running water, and he almost felt like crying when he saw the huge green river.
Without a second of delay, he jumped into it and, with Dona in tow, dived down and swam with the flow to the distance.
For now, he just wanted to get away from here.
...
About three kilometers away, Mark already knew he had guessed wrong.
The two or so days he had spent in the Demon World had warped his common sense. This was no Demon World; this was a civilized world.
As he moved down in the river, he had expected for a deeper forest to hide himself in. As long as he swam downstream, he would see a jungle, he had expected.
But the river connected with a bigger river in a city, and that made Mark hide even more seriously. This was a civilized world, one city wouldn't lead to another huge forest, it would only lead to other cities.
Mark looked up and saw the yellow moon casting its gentle glow down the land. He then looked down slightly, and a modest bridge filled with small traffic and headlights appeared in his sight.
Thankfully, the night hid him from the humans.
Covertly, Mark carried Dona and climbed the banks before taking a better look. Beyond the bridge, there was a concrete jungle.
"This is not that bad…"
He took a deep breath and calmed himself down.
Mark felt a deep sense of worry looking at everything.
His entry into this world was a public debacle. Cameras had gotten him clearly.
Not to mention gaining the attention of enemies with supernatural powers, even bombs and guns might be dangerous to him, and this world didn't seem lacking in scientific development.
It seemed too much like Earth.
Briefly, the way he had ended up here flashed by in his mind.
Colossal giants had come out of nowhere, and he had nearly been squashed to death.
Just as he was about to die, he panicked and took out the Portal Key to the World of Supers that he had gotten from the Will of the Demon World. He wanted to use it right away, but he didn't have to in the end.
The moment his mind connected with the Key and his Mind power entered it, he could sense the nearby Portal which was already open intensely. When he thought of it, he was pulled into that shimmering portal instead, like a magnet attracting another.
It jerked him into that portal.
His own key was still safe.
Mark looked at it, still clutched in his palm, and sighed. On his right hand, there was also a tattoo—the Seal of Destiny.
For now, he took another deep breath and turned to look at the mud road that led toward the city. He could just walk into the city through there. But if he left like that, though, the public would see him.
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