The city beneath the night sky looked dazzling beneath the glow of multicolored neon lights.
People walked along the straight avenue, accompanied by belts of greenery made up of gorgeous flowers, verdant grass, and tall trees. Even this slightly sweltering summer night carried a faint hint of coolness.
Colorful lights.
Crystal-clear river water.
And in the distance, the brightly lit Rainbow Bridge, along with the ubiquitous din.
All of this had already been repeated across the city on countless nights.
This was daily life.
This was normal.
Until—
"Bang!"
A thunderous roar suddenly erupted in one corner of the city.
At one corner of the broad, crowded street, a black shadow smashed through a sturdy wall and shot out amid the flying rubble.
The shadow was not large—about the size of an adult—but it moved as fast as a speeding vehicle. In the blink of an eye, it burst through the flying debris and charged onto the street.
Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a monster with fly-like wings and a bloated, distinctly segmented body like a bee. Its entire body was a mottled green that triggered instinctive disgust.
The monster's appearance shattered the ordinary calm of the summer night, plunging the entire street into chaos.
"Phantom Demon!"
"A Phantom Demon has appeared!"
"Run!"
The moment the people on the street saw this scene, they let out terrified screams.
As they fled in panic and shouted in fear, countless vehicles lost control and collided all over the street.
Amid the chaos, the people failed to notice that the creature they called a "Phantom Demon" was also fleeing in panic.
It stared at the strangers on the street, greed, bloodlust, and brutality gleaming in its eyes as though it were looking at a feast.
Clearly, to it, creatures called "humans" were no different from food.
Yet this monster had no choice but to abandon so much food and flee frantically toward the other end of the street.
Just then, three figures charged out through the wall the monster had smashed apart.
They wore identical uniforms and were all very young. Their faces still carried traces of childishness, and they were no more than seventeen or eighteen years old.
Yet upon seeing these three youngsters, the monster actually fled even faster.
"Don't even think about escaping!"
A clean-cut boy who looked like a frail scholar extended one hand toward the monster, anger flaring in his voice.
A ring composed of mysterious characters and patterns suddenly appeared. It swept from his arm to his wrist, then onward to the space before his palm, like a cannon muzzle taking aim at the fleeing monster.
"Seventh Style: Ash Shackles."
The mysterious ring hovering before the uniformed boy's palm suddenly burst into light.
"Vmmm!"
Amid the buzzing, a mass of black ash appeared along with a sudden gust of wind.
The black ash intertwined like ropes, forming wisps of gray mist that wrapped around the fleeing monster with lightning speed and surrounded it.
"Bang!"
Caught off guard, the monster slammed into the wall of black ash and bounced away like a ball.
"Eek!"
The monster immediately let out an anxious shriek. It turned and crashed toward the other side, only to be bounced away by the black ash again.
"Lei Hao! Now!"
The clean-cut uniformed boy shouted.
"Leave it to me!"
One of the uniformed boys answered as he charged forward.
Unlike the clean-cut, scholarly boy, he was powerfully built, with sturdy limbs and slightly dark skin. A greatsword rested on his shoulder. He barreled forward like a charging tank, smashing through a car in his way, while his pounding feet left deep pit-like prints in the ground.
The speed brought by such a brute-force charge was astonishing. His body shot forward like a bullet, allowing him to easily catch up with the monster restrained by the black ash.
"Roar!"
With a beastlike roar, the burly boy called Lei Hao crushed the paving stones beneath his feet and transformed into a human cannonball, soaring into the sky and landing above the monster.
"Go down!"
With another furious roar, the greatsword Lei Hao had carried over his shoulder rose high before crashing heavily into the monster.
"Slash!"
Amid a sound like tearing silk, the monster did not even have time to react before it was cleaved in two.
The two halves of its body crashed to the ground amid splattered blood, instantly dyeing the pavement red.
"Hmph!"
Not the slightest trace of joy appeared on Lei Hao's face.
"Splorch."
Before Lei Hao had even landed, the monster lying in the pool of blood suddenly began writhing all over. Its severed halves also began inching toward each other, showing signs of reconnecting.
"Tch. As expected, without using Spiritual Art, it's difficult to eliminate Phantom Demons with regenerative abilities."
Lei Hao landed atop a streetlamp and clicked his tongue resentfully. Only then did he turn around and call toward the other end of the street.
"The rest is yours, Su Ming!"
When Lei Hao's shout faded, the last uniformed boy slowly emerged from the other end of the street.
Unlike the other two, he was neither fair nor burly. His build was average, and his appearance was not particularly rugged. Only his deep, bright eyes stood out, giving others the impression that they could not tell what he was thinking.
He slowly walked toward the monster lying in the pool of blood as its halves reconnected and prepared to revive. At some point, mysterious rune rings had begun revolving around his arm, just like those on the clean-cut uniformed boy.
There were three rings in total. Mysterious characters and patterns continuously flowed across them, as though forming some kind of design, causing the rings to gradually become complete.
Once the three mysterious rings had fully taken shape and swept before his palm, Su Ming had also arrived in front of the monster.
"Eek!"
The monster seemed to sense danger. No longer concerned with its regenerating body, it suddenly sprang up, snarling viciously as it pounced at Su Ming.
But by then, Su Ming had already raised his hand.
"Twenty-Eighth Style: Spiral Fire."
In an instant, scorching flames erupted like a whirlpool.
Before the incompletely regenerated monster could reach Su Ming, it was engulfed by the vortex of flames.
A voiceless scream rang out.
The surrounding temperature began to rise.
A fiery-red glow illuminated the chaotic corner of the street, coating the surrounding buildings in red.
By the time even the bloodstained pavement, transformed into a pool of blood, had been scorched, the monster had already been burned to ashes within the flames. Together with the black ash that had bound it earlier, the ashes scattered in the wind.
"We did it!"
In the distance, Lei Hao clenched a fist and shouted.
"Whew."
The clean-cut boy also breathed a sigh of relief.
"Clap, clap, clap, clap!"
The passersby, having recovered from the chaos, exchanged glances before enthusiastically applauding.
"Great!"
"Nicely done!"
"They're so young, yet they can eliminate a Phantom Demon. Amazing!"
"Judging from those uniforms, they should be students of the Demon Hunter Academy, right?"
"Then are they Warlocks?"
"They could also be Hunters."
"Whether they're Warlocks or Hunters, being able to kill a Phantom Demon is impressive!"
"That's right, that's right!"
The onlookers began chatting like this as they applauded.
Su Ming raised his brows slightly as he watched the surrounding passersby applaud and discuss them. Instead of feeling proud, he grew wary.
Will this be too high-profile?
Su Ming thought.
I should've used a lower-sequence Spiritual Art instead of the Twenty-Eighth Style and disguised my abilities a little.
Just as Su Ming had this thought, Lei Hao came leaping over from above the crowd, carrying the greatsword in one hand and a pair of wings in the other, drawing startled cries from many passersby.
"I finally finished this damn mission." Lei Hao grinned as he displayed the wings in his hand. "We've got the spoils too. Call Ye Bai and let's get out of here!"
Lei Hao's flippant attitude infuriated the clean-cut boy, who was struggling to push his way in from the edge of the crowd.
"Get out of here, my ass!" Ye Bai rapped Lei Hao on the forehead and shouted, "Do you think you won't be held responsible if you run? If you hadn't been careless, this S creaming Devil wouldn't have broken through our encirclement and escaped onto the street. Fortunately, no one was injured. Otherwise, you would've gotten us all killed!"
"Don't put it like that." Lei Hao shrank his neck and chuckled sheepishly. "Wasn't I worried that the Screaming Devil would escape back into the Spirit Fiend Abyss? I just got carried away for a moment..."
"You charged straight through?" Ye Bai said irritably. "That's why I say you Hunters only know how to dig into your physical potential and rack your brains to improve your bloodlines. You never use your heads to think things through. You're all a bunch of brutes!"
"Yes, yes, you Warlocks are the smartest. Happy now?" Lei Hao said indifferently. "The mission's complete, and the Screaming Devil's wings have been recovered. Let's go back and report!"
Hearing this, Ye Bai did not know what to say and could only sigh silently.
Seeing this, Su Ming knew that the two had finished their usual bickering.
So, like a Side Character playing peacemaker, he spoke at precisely the right moment.
"In that case, let's return to the academy."
With those words, Su Ming brought the sudden incident to a close.
Not long afterward, sirens rang out.
Su Ming, Lei Hao, and Ye Bai left together, leaving behind a mess and an incident that people would talk about with relish.
Of course, it would not become some enormously popular news story.
At least, that was how things were in this world.
Su Ming watched Lei Hao and Ye Bai, who had inexplicably begun bickering again, then suddenly raised his head and looked toward the night sky.
Stars dotted the night sky, making it markedly different from the skies over the major cities in Su Ming's memories.
In his memories, the night skies over major cities had long since lost sight of the stars.
But here, he could still see them.
Because this was not Earth.
Or rather, it no longer resembled Earth.
"Who would've thought that after waking from a sleep, the world would become like this?"
It was still the same city. Only its name had changed.
The people around him were still those he had known since childhood, yet they had also become different from before.
Even Su Ming himself had become completely incomparable to his former self.
The proof was the wings of the Screaming Devil dragging in his hand, as well as this world where monsters appeared as a matter of course.
Before you continue