Chapter 2: THE PLAYER
[HAAAAA... HAAAA... HAAAA... HAAAA... HAAA...]
A young man with long, wet, messy and untied hair, woke up in a jolt with droplets of sweats falling on his clothes from point of his nose. He was also having difficulties to breathe and he held his left chest tightly with his right hand. He was Hwang Jae-Hyuk and a mixture of pain and disbelief could be seen on his face.
'Was it a dream...? Was everything false...?' Jae-Hyuk thought as he removed the blanket covering his lower body with his free hand. He released his chest as soon as his pain lessened and started to inspect his left leg with both of his hands.
'My leg is back...! But was it really cut off or was it a dream created from my knowledge of this world's future.'
He immediately started to move his head from left to right, in order to obtain as much information as possible about his position.
'A large room with a large bed with enough space for two person... And the strict minimum number of furniture and several large windows... Also this familiar scent of medicine that permeate the air... I'm in a hospital.' He was lost once again in his thoughts.
Suddenly, he heard the sliding door of his room closing, and he saw two men wearing black suits, walked towards him.
"Are you finally awake, Hunter Hwang Jae-Hyuk?" One of the men who was a handsome young man with slick orange hair, said as he stared at a surprised Jae-Hyuk straight in the eyes. Behind him was the other man who look a little bit older than him. The orange-haired man has an imposing aura around him which overshadowed his partner's presence.
'Slick orange hair and an imposing aura.... There's no mistake.... This man is Inspector Woo Jinchul, the Surveillance chief from the Korean Hunters Association and also the Chairman's right-hand man. So, I was really not dreaming, I really inherited the system instead of Jin-Woo.' Jae-Hyuk thought as his eyes completely regained their vigor and liveliness.
"Who are you?" He calmed himself down and said, as if he didn't know the identity of the man in front of him.
"Sorry, if we surprised you... But we need to talk, here is my card." Jinchul said as he handed a black card with white letters to Jae-Hyuk as he and his partner sat in a couch beside Jae-Hyuk's bed.
"The Korean Hunter Association's Inspectors..." He read the first line on the card aloud before handing the card back to Jinchul.
"May I know why do the inspectors from the strongest organization in South Korea want to see me....?"
"It is because we want to have a little talk with hunter Jae-Hyuk about the incident inside the D-rank Dungeon that you got involved with three days ago." Jinchul said with a calm voice, while his eyes were staring intensely at Jae-Hyuk.
"What do you mean three days ago? I just woke up a few minutes before you guys came in? "
"It's just like I said... Hunter Hwang Jae-Hyuk has sleep for three days without waking up."
"So, I was really sleeping for three days..... By the way, were Jin-Woo, Miss Joohee and Mister Chil-Yul able to make it out safely...?" Jae-Hyuk stared at Jinchul with an anxious gaze.
"They managed to make it out without any problem like the other two hunters that exited before them... Hunter Song Chil-Yul and Sung Jin-woo will be able to resume their activities as hunters, as soon as they want. On the other hand, Hunter Lee Joohee is still getting treated due to her extreme trauma... Current, it's uncertain if she will resume her activities as hunter."
"And the other two hunters; Kim Sang-Shik an-"
"It's fine, Mister Inspector... Knowing that those three are fine, is enough for me." Jae-Hyuk interrupted the other inspector that kept on giving information to him after Jinchul stopped talking. He tried his best to calm down as the memories of Kim Sang-Shik and that female hunter abandoning them to their deaths, resurfaced in his head. Jinchul noticed that Jae-Hyuk was irritated by simply mentioning the name of Kim Sang-Shik, decided to change the flow of the conversation.
"The number of hunters that survived the double lair is six... Even though that line of work is very dangerous, it's rare that a massacre like this occur. After all twelve hunters have lost their lives.... Also when the other inspectors and the hunters from the White Tiger Guild reached the scene, there were almost nothing... All the stone statues and everything that all the other survivors mentioned, were all gone.... In that room, there was you who was lying on the altar without any injury that stood out more than usual..."
"That can't be, Sir...?!!"
"We couldn't believe it either... If the survivors' testimonies had differed by even a little, or if some of the body parts of the deceased hunters weren't found there... We would've thought that another explanation would have been more appropriate... This is just our theory, but... We believe that you received the famous 'Double Awakening'."
'Double Awakening?! But if you think about it, that a logical theory as those statues shouldn't normally disappear without the dungeon being cleared... On top of that I was the only one left, and I'm a D-rank Assassin. So, unless I went through the process of double awakening and become an S-rank Hunter, it is impossible for me to cleared an S-rank Dungeon... What they don't know, is that I cleared it through a loop hole in that specific dungeon, since it was created to find a new host for the Shadow Monarch.'
"You might not know about it as Double Awakening is an extremely rare occurrence. This is because a hunter's stats are set when they awakened and received their powers. However, there have been cases where some hunters get awakened again after their first time. These hunters receive incredible boost in their abilities and mana capacities.
Some C-ranks that plowed directly to A-rank, or B-rank shooting straight to S-rank." The partner of Jinchul explained as he stared at Jae-Hyuk. He then continued to his explanation as he showed a golden metallic device with a purple crystal on the top.
"This is the Magic Power Detector.... All you have to do is to place your hand on the mana crystal."
Jae-Hyuk followed the inspector's instructions and placed his right hand on the mana power detector and the device's display screen only displayed the number '22'.
'No wonder, he is called the second weakest hunter in the world.... Even the other lowest E-rank hunter, except for the weakest hunter in existence, has a mana power of 70... But he is a trash through and through... His mana power is only twice the mana power of Jin-Woo.... No wonder, he is very close to the weakest Hunter Jin-Woo... It's just like that old quotes; Bird of same feathers flock together.... It seems that trash attracts trash.' The inspector thought as he read the value displayed.
"What are my results, Sir?"
"It looks like we suspected you for no reason... There's nothing unusual, Mister Jinchul." The inspector said as he put his detector in his bag. After he finished, both the inspector left the room with wasting anytime.
'So, I'm not considered a Double Awakener like Jin-Woo in the original plot and it is the same for the blue window in front of me. So, only I can see it as it come from the system... I must admit that this is very convenient for me as I can use my system anywhere without causing any commotion. I will definitely use this power properly to become a hunter stronger than Jin-Woo in the original plot of Solo Leveling.... But still from that inspector's expression, I should be considered trash according to whatever value he saw on his device. '
{ -MESSAGE-
[ YOU HAVE AN UNREAD MAIL] }
'Open Mail!'
{ -MESSAGE-
[WECOME, [PLAYER]. <UNREAD> (DAILY QUEST: PREPARING TO BECOME STRONG) HAS ARRIVED <UNREAD>] }
{ !ALARM!
[THE SYSTEM WILL HELP THE 'PLAYER'S GROWTH] }
{ !ALARM!
[IF YOU FAILS TO OBEY THE SYSTEM'S ORDERS, THERE MAY BE A PENALTY.] }
{ !ALARM!
[YOUR REWARDS HAVE ARRIVED.] }
'There are many windows but only one is of interest for me, right now... 'PREPARING TO BECOME STRONG' check '
{ !QUEST DIRECTIONS!
[DAILY QUEST: -GETTING READY TO BECOME POWERFUL
-GOAL:
(INCOMPLETE) PUSH-UPS: <0/100>
(INCOMPLETE) CURL-UPS: <0/100>
(INCOMPLETE) CURL-UPS: <0/100>
(INCOMPLETE) SQUATS: <0/100>
(INCOMPLETE) RUNNING: <0/10km>
WARNING-FAILING TO COMPLETE THIS DAILY QUEST WLL BRING A PUNISHMENT ASSOCIATED WITH THIS QUEST. ] }
'All of the activities that I received from the quest are the same as those that Jin-Woo should have received... Even the allocated twenty-four hours to complete the daily quest, didn't change.... Still I forget to check my overall stats before opening the daily quest, but it doesn't matter....
After all it will remains the same unless I add any stats points to them, so it's okay for now... Also right now, my priority is to not receive any penalty stupidly by ignoring the quest, since I activated it automatically by opening its window... Anyway, it is time for some workouts...'
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone