───────[ STATUS WINDOW ]───────
WARNING: LIMIT REACHED. EVOLUTION REQUIRED.
Would you like to evolve?
[Y/N]
──────────────────────────
I stared at the words, my breath slow, controlled.
For thirty years, I had pushed myself to the brink.
For a hundred frozen years, I had trained beyond what should have been humanly possible.
And now, the system itself acknowledged it.
This was the next step.
I reached forward.
And I pressed YES.
The Pain of Rebirth
The moment I accepted, my body ignited in agony.
It wasn't just pain. It was destruction—like every cell in my body was breaking apart, unraveling, and then rebuilding itself all at once.
I fell to my knees, gasping, my muscles seizing, my bones stretching.
The limit of 999—the barrier that had trapped me—was being shattered from the inside out.
I had seen others grow rapidly, their stats climbing as they trained, fought, and adapted.
But this?
This was something else.
I wasn't just growing.
I was evolving.
My mind stretched into something larger, my senses expanding beyond what I had ever known.
And then, just as suddenly as it started—
It stopped.
I exhaled, my breath coming out in heavy clouds of steam.
I felt light. Strong. Limitless.
The notification flickered before my eyes once more.
───────[ STATUS WINDOW ]───────
Evolution Complete. New Rank Achieved.
Status Unlocked: Transcendent
New Stats Limit: 9999
──────────────────────────
I clenched my fists.
I wasn't bound by human limitations anymore.
But I wasn't the only one getting stronger.
The Hunter's Association and the Ranking System
While I had been lost in my own relentless pursuit of strength, the world had changed.
The Awakened were no longer scattered individuals fighting for survival.
They had organized.
The strongest among them had formed the Hunter's Association, establishing a system to categorize the power of every Awakened.
It was built around the Status Window, measuring total stats and skill effectiveness.
Your rank wasn't determined by fame or reputation—it was determined by numbers.
S-Rank – The pinnacle of strength, warriors capable of single-handedly wiping out entire waves of monsters.
A-Rank – Elite hunters, powerful enough to lead teams into the most dangerous zones.
B-Rank – Experienced, skilled, but not quite at the top.
C-Rank – Decent fighters, capable of surviving but not dominating.
D-Rank – Average hunters, barely above normal humans.
E-Rank – Weak, struggling to fight even the lowest-class monsters.
F-Rank – The lowest, Awakened who could barely be considered stronger than regular people.
Guilds were formed. Teams were built. The strongest controlled the battlefield.
This was the new world order.
And I…
I didn't fit anywhere in it.
A Power Beyond Rank
The ranking system didn't apply to me.
Because my stats had gone beyond what they could measure.
No one had ever seen numbers past 999.
No one even knew it was possible to evolve beyond the limits of the system.
Which meant—
To the world, I was still an S-Rank at best.
They had no idea.
No idea that while they were racing toward power…
I had already surpassed them all.
But that also meant one thing—
If I wanted to stay ahead, I couldn't stop now.
If I had broken through the first limit…
What was stopping me from breaking the next?
And as I clenched my fists, feeling the surge of power that came with my new evolution—
I realized one thing.
The war had only just begun.