After leaving the Trading Centre, Moon’s stomach grumbled.
Grumble!
Moon’s face flushed slightly as a nearby woman chuckled at the sound.
He hadn’t eaten anything substantial since returning to Earth, just some cheap convenience store food he had picked up on the way to the Awakener’s association. His body, powerful though it was, still needed proper fuel.
He decided to find a restaurant.
Walking back toward his apartment, Moon spotted a place about a kilometer away. It was on his route home anyway, so he decided to try it out.
The establishment looked decent, it was clean, moderately priced, the kind of place that catered to both civilians and low level awakeners.
Inside, the menu offered a variety of meals. Moon selected something simple: rice with Grade One beef.
Grade One meant the meat came from a first sanctuary beast, processed and prepared to be safe for civilian consumption while retaining enhanced nutritional value. It was more expensive than regular beef but worth it for the benefits.
He sat at a table near the window, his food arriving quickly. The first bite felt incredible, especially after three months of monster meat cooked over questionable fires.
The food was well prepared, and seasoned. Something that he didn’t have the luxury to eat in the hidden realm.
Moon ate peacefully, savoring the normalcy of it all. His peace was interrupted when alarms started blaring across the entire area.
"WARNING! A RIFT IS OPENING WITHIN THE VICINITY! EVACUATE THE IMMEDIATE AREA!"
The sound cut through the restaurant like a knife.
Most conversations died instantly as fear settled in everyone’s hearts. Civilians looked up in confusion and mounting terror.
Moon’s body tensed, hearing the announcement.
The city had centres that focused on nothing but detecting fluctuations in space throughout the city.
Unfortunately, the announcements are always during the opening of these rifts, so no awakeners could be sent prior to the arrival. Still, the announcements reduce deaths, even if it was by little.
Before he could even stand, space tore open directly outside the restaurant.
A rift materialised outside connecting Earth to the sanctuary.
It manifested in the middle of the street. Purple and black energy crackled around its edges as it stabilized before limbs started to appear.
"Oh... shit," Moon muttered, a sigh escaping his mouth.
He looked at his unfinished food then at the rift, before cursing inaudibly. "I paid a few thousand dollars for this..."
ROAR!
Monsters immediately started flooding through.
The first to come out were multiple Forest Bears. They were massive creatures standing over two meters tall, their brown fur matted and wild, their eyes burning with mindless hunger.
They poured out of the rift in a steady stream, spreading chaos across the street.
A man who’d been eating at the table next to Moon’s moments earlier bolted for the door, trying to escape.
The bear caught him instantly with its powerful claws.
"Ahhh! Leave me alon...help! Please, I have children to come ba-"
The creature’s jaws closed around the man’s torso, lifting him off the ground. His scream cut off abruptly as teeth pierced through flesh and bone.
Blood sprayed across the pavement as a result.
Moon’s expression darkened at the scene.
[Forest Bear]
[Level: 13]
[Details: The most common type of bear in forested sanctuary zones. It has no elemental affinity, they are the weakest of their species. Known for their physical strength and durability.]
Reading through the information, Moon felt relief cut through his tension.
The rift wasn’t catastrophic... luckily.
Level thirteen beasts were dangerous to civilians and low-level awakeners, but not to him. He could handle this.
Multiple bears had already started making their way into the restaurant, drawn by the screams and the scent of trapped prey.
Civilians inside panicked, their voices rising in desperate pleas.
"Someone help!"
"Where are the awakeners?!"
"Please, somebody do something!"
A bear crashed through the front window, breaking the reinforced glass without any resistance.
Shards scattered across the restaurant, hitting some civilians, injuring them lightly.
Now inside, the massive beast was filling the doorway. Its eyes locked onto Moon, and it charged.
Roa-
Before the bear could roar fully, the sound of an explosion filled the restaurant.
BOOM!
Fire erupted from Moon’s palm. A compressed fireball that struck the bear directly in the face. The explosion consumed its head entirely, the creature dropping mid-charge and sliding across the floor before it crashed against Moon’s table.
[You have killed a level 13 Forest Bear.]
[You have gained 40 Lives.]
Moon’s eyebrows rose at the number.
Only forty lives? He’d expected at least seventy, based on what he’d been gaining in the hidden realm from lower-level creatures.
The beasts were probably stronger, and maybe hidden realms just provide more, Moon thought.
Before he could think about it further, two additional bears charged through the broken window, their roars shaking the restaurant.
Within moments, they were directly at point blank range. Just a few meters away from Moon.
"Be careful!" A woman’s scream echoed through the room.
She covered her eyes, certain she was about to witness Moon being torn apart by the approaching claws.
Moon’s staff materialized in his hand from his storage ring. He moved fluidly, intercepting both attacks with the reinforced wood. The impacts resonated through his arms but his strength held firm.
"It’s rude to interrupt a thinking man," he muttered.
He kicked the first bear, his strength sending it stumbling backward despite its mass. Freeing his staff from the second bear’s claws, he struck it across the head with a devastating blow that left it dazed and disoriented.
An earth spike erupted from the floor, piercing through the stunned bear’s throat. It collapsed with a gurgling roar, blood pooling beneath it.
The first bear tried to use that moment to attack Moon from behind, but a fireball consumed its face before it could close the distance, just like its predecessor.
[You have killed a level 13 Forest Bear.]
[You have gained 40 Lives.]
[You have killed a level 13 Forest Bear.]
[You have gained 40 Lives.]
The scene shocked everyone present in the restaurant. The seemingly weak young man was apparently a strong awakener.
Three bears down in less than twenty seconds.
Moon surveyed the restaurant. Civilians were pressed against the far wall, staring at him with expressions ranging from shock to hope. Outside, more bears were rampaging through the street, attacking anyone who couldn’t escape fast enough.
And the rift was still open, still spilling more creatures into the city.
Moon’s grip tightened on his staff.
He’d wanted a peaceful meal. Wanted one moment of normalcy after everything he’d been through.
Apparently, the monsters had other plans.
"Stay inside," Moon said to the civilians, his voice calm. "Don’t go near the windows."
He walked toward the broken entrance, his staff in his right hand.
Now that he was outside the restaurant, Moon was able to witness the full scale of carnage around him.
Multiple human corpses littered the street, torn apart and scattered across the pavement. Some were missing limbs. Others were barely recognizable as human. Blood streamed down the road like a river, pooling in the gutters, staining everything it touched.
Screams of civilians filled the area, desperate and terrified, but they were mostly masked by the roars of the bears that hunted them.