Chapter 10: Chapter 10. The apocalyptic event's.

As the guard collected each badge, he scanned it against his watch, which emitted a confirming beep of verification.

He methodically gathered and scanned each badge displayed by the group. Their badges revealed their seasoned hunter status, all except for Ethan's, which bore a blood-red shield in the center instead of bronze, indicating his novice hunter rank.

The hierarchy of hunters was categorized into five distinct ranks: novice, seasoned, elite, master, and legendary. A novice hunter's badge featured a blood-red shield, a seasoned hunter's a bronze one. Elite hunters carried a silver-colored shield badge, masters had gold, and at the pinnacle, legendary hunters bore platinum-colored shields.

Advancement through the hunter ranks required the slaying of demonic beasts, the very foundation upon which the Hunter's Guild was established.

After scanning their badges, the guards didn't immediately admit the group into the shelter. Instead, they used their rod-shaped devices, which were scanners, to check each person's body.

These scanners were designed to prevent anyone possessed or controlled by a demonic beast from infiltrating the shelter and causing chaos.

The leader of the guard detail promptly began to scan each member of the group. However, when he reached Hyejin, his professionalism faltered, and he began to use the scanner to prod around Hyejin's form with a smirk on his face.

Hyejin, with her striking beauty and a figure accentuated by a tight leather battle suit, was accustomed to unwanted attention, though she remained stoic and unfazed by the guard's unseemly behavior.

The one who couldn't hide his outrage was the young man who had earlier used his fire attack to injure Ethan. Ethan had observed enough during their day's hunt to discern that this young man harbored deep feelings for Hyejin. Witnessing Hyejin being subjected to such disrespect was infuriating, yet he managed to contain his anger, teeth gritted and fists clenched.

Eventually, the guard completed the scans, and the group was granted access to the shelter.

Upon entering, Ethan's gaze was immediately drawn to an imposing three-story building not far from the entrance: the headquarters of this shelter's Hunter's Guild.

In front of the building stood a statue of a formidable warrior clad in golden armor, with a colossal sword resting on his shoulder. His head was crowned with a golden helmet that obscured his face. Despite being an inanimate statue, it emanated a majestic aura that almost compelled onlookers to kneel in reverence.

The statue represented the founder of the Hunter's Guild, lauded as the greatest hunter of all humanity.

The Hunter's Guild had been established fifty years after the apocalyptic event that triggered the Awakening, at a time when humans had just managed to fend off the onslaught of demonic beasts.

A century and a half prior, Earth was the dominion of humankind, atop the hierarchy of all living beings. This preeminence persisted until an extraterrestrial craft crashed onto the planet.

The spacecraft, hurtling like a comet from the cosmos, made an impact in the United States, unleashing an explosion akin to that of a nuclear bomb and claiming millions of lives.

The tragedy was a calamitous blow to humanity, the magnitude of which was immeasurable. Little did they know, this was merely the precursor to a series of cataclysmic events.

Initially suspected to be a meteorite, the site of the impact yielded a discovery that would stun the world: the object was not a natural celestial body, but an alien craft. Speculation swirled about the possibility of an extraterrestrial assault.

However, further investigation of the craft revealed even more astonishing truths. It operated without any known form of electricity, instead functioning through mechanisms that seemed to defy the very laws of physics, hinting at the existence of magic.

Seized by the U.S. government, the alien vessel marked the commencement of "Project Blue Horizon," a global initiative uniting the world's leading scientists to probe the mysteries of the spacecraft, discern its origins, and develop defensive measures against a potential alien incursion.

A decade passed without incident following the craft's arrival, and the world gradually turned its attention away from the alien enigma.

But just as the collective memory of the ship began to fade, catastrophe struck. A corrosive rain swept across the globe, pelting the Earth for three days and nights, leaving a wake of death that consumed people, animals, and vegetation alike.

Many interpreted this calamity as the harbinger of the biblical apocalypse, and a pall of dread settled over humanity as they braced for the end of days.

Yet, some months after the toxic deluge, Project Blue Horizon achieved a breakthrough. Their findings posited that the acid rain was not a portent of Armageddon but the result of drastic climate changes linked to the alien craft.

The hypothesis suggested that the vessel was not merely a ship but a piece of advanced technology, created by a highly sophisticated alien civilization with the capability to induce environmental transformations, shaping the planet to their will through a series of natural phenomena.

This revelation ignited global controversy, sparking heated debates about the implications of such technology.

Many argued that the alien artifact was too dangerous to remain on Earth, fearing the unpredictable chain reactions it might provoke, beyond human control. Conversely, a faction saw the technology as a beacon of human evolution, arguing that unlocking its complexities could catalyze a leap forward for mankind.

The debate raged on, with neither side yielding, their staunch beliefs driving a wedge of chaos through the world's populace, as everyone grappled with the ramifications of this otherworldly discovery.

For some time, there was a lot of arguing about a topic, and the government couldn't manage the situation as disorder spread around the world.

The argument went on for quite some time until people were given a new issue to think about: the way animals were changing or, should I say, evolving.

At first, only a few people noticed it, but then more and more people started paying attention when events like entire families being killed and eaten by their pet dogs began to occur all over the world. This caused people to start taking the problem seriously, but it was too late as the situation had already spun out of their control.