In a busy street of the business district of Z-city... People come and go as they busy themselves with their life.

"Hmmm?" At the edge of the sidewalk sat a youth with tears pouring out of his eyes. He was wearing the Z-City University uniform, and with what seemed like drafting tools sprawled to the ground.

The youth has deep blue hair, brownish-orange eyes, and a young face.

A bystander, seeing the youth's eyes gushing down in tears without making a noise, couldn't help but feel bad, so he approached the youth.

"Young man! You shouldn't let life beat you up!" He encouraged loudly, then added...

"This world has been doing its best to get rid of us humans for a long time already, but we're still here! Do you know why? Because we're tough!"

"We feel pain, hurt, and loss, but even still, life continues to fuck us over, so fuck life too!"

"What I'm trying to say is, everything in the world is going to hurt you, so find something—anything—that makes you want to stand up, even if it means punching life in the nuts!"

The man felt like he lost a point in his words but continued anyway.

He saw the youth didn't respond, and he wanted to say more but stopped himself, as he knew, only time could help whatever this young man was going through.

"Hang in there," he told the youth as he went on his way.

The youth tilted his head slightly upward. He had heard what the kind man had said.

Though his focus was mostly on the language he spoke, it wasn't Japanese like the anime; nor was it English; he wasn't even sure if it was any language on 'earth’, yet he could understand and read them. At best, it had hints of Japanese on them.

Well, he had already concluded that this morning. Still, the strong sense of alienation and isolation made him think it again.

He wasn't from this world.

At least his mind and soul weren't, if there ever was a soul. He suddenly found himself in an unfamiliar apartment and found the body of Dean Reiji, a 19 years old, second-year college, 1.74-meter-tall student living separately in an apartment.

At first, he was baffled and depressed, before the crisis took over when he realized what kind of world he found himself in. Luckily, like any transmigrator, he found himself a cheat, so that comforted him a bit. Despite the cheat looking so simple.

Still, he suppressed the complicated emotions he had and prepared himself to go to the university.

He wanted to slowly adapt himself to his environment before doing anything drastic, but as soon as he got out of the apartment, the feelings of alienation, isolation, and depression heightened significantly.

In the end, in the middle of walking, he just broke down. It wasn't so easy to accept that you wouldn't be able to see the people you loved anymore. And what's worse? Knowing you have to continue living your life without them.

And surprise surprise, Dean, like a typical protagonist, has no longer any family in this world.

Killed by monsters. Alone in the world.

He was an introverted person, both back on earth and Dean's personality.

Still, the weight of being alone crashed him today. Facing the world... Alone... Tears continued to gush out of his eyes.

He thought he had already used them all. He sat there sniffling but didn't make any noise.

A minute or two passed as he felt a little better, crying his heart out.

 "Gyaahh!!"

"Arrrrgghh!"

"Monster!"

Screaming rang out.

'Of course,' Dean thought as he looked at the directions to where the screaming was.

Up to some distance towards the east.

Dean saw people screaming and running away in panic.

Soon he saw what they were running from—a tall, green-colored humanoid creature. It has mantis blades for arms and is more than 2 meters tall.

He slashed a person, and blood splattered in the air.

Seeing it, his eyes widened a bit, and his body shook. Realizing this, he couldn’t help but show a grin.

"So you do want to live..." he mumbled, his voice hoarse from crying.

For a second, he thought of just ending it all, but it seems his body's instinct to survive reacted. He felt fear, which means he wanted to live.

Then again, the thought of killing oneself is pretty stupid; his existence basically proves that there is life after death; he’d just be going through and waking up in another world if he killed himself.

Thinking of something, he grabbed his bag and rummaged inside. He felt the cold steel and brought it out.

Meanwhile, screaming and running continued to ring the place, but soon the sounds of sirens came about. A squad of the police division that specializes in handling monsters was coming.

Bang!

Bang!

Shots have been fired.

‘Dean’ peeked from the alley where he was hiding and saw a few citizens that also brought their guns, shooting at the monster as blue blood flew in the air.

‘That’s good; it means the monster isn't that powerful; at least, firearms can damage it. A wolf-level monster...'

He thought and concluded while in his hands was a black-colored pistol. It was what the previous Dean bought months ago, and because of the situation in this world, acquiring a gun wasn’t hard.

Normally, the previous Dean would have left the gun as he went to the university, but since he woke up in his body and realized how dangerous this world is, he brought the gun with him.

Why was he peeking at the monster as it slashed toward one of the shooters instead of running away?

Cause why the hell not?

Everything was confusing, strange, and complicated. A complex emotion welled up in his chest, and he didn’t know what to do with it.

So he decided to vent it out on this monster.

They say you feel alive when fighting for your life.

"Let's find out, shall we?”

He slowly walked closer to the rampaging monster; from the distance, he saw armored vehicles approaching. He was running out of time.

Finally, when he was about 20 meters away from the monsters, he pointed his pistol at the bleeding monster and pulled the trigger.

He didn’t know if he could hit the monster at this distance, but he didn’t care; he just wanted to pull the trigger.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

He pulled the trigger five times, and he vaguely saw only two bullets hit its back.

"Graagghhh!!"

The crowd screamed in pain before gunshots rained down on them.

Bog!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

"Shoot it!"

"Assessing disaster level: wolf!"

"Hey kid! Get out of here!"

Police have alighted themselves out of their vehicles as they started firing down on the monster.

One of them saw him and shouted at him to run away.

Seeing them ganging up on the monster, he clicked his tongue and turned around to leave.

He jogged towards where his stuff was and wondered if he should continue to go to the university when...

"Watch out!"

Loud gunshots filled his ears, so he failed to hear the sounds of heavy footsteps running towards him.

He looked back and saw a bulging monster with the same color as the monster before, charging towards him!

‘Where did it come from!?’

Was his last thought before the monster rammed against him, and then everything turned upside down as he was blown away...

When he fell on the ground, He felt dizzy as he couldn’t make sense of his surroundings.

"G-et u-p!"

He heard a voice and a touch; it was a bit familiar.

He brought himself back to his feet, though, helped by someone.

"Get up! Life isn't over yet!"

He heard shouting beside him. When he came too, he was suddenly shoved aside. Dean now saw who helped him; it was the guy who tried to motivate him minutes ago.

‘Why is he back?’

He fell to his side, maybe because he still felt dizzy, but time seemed to have slowed down.

He saw the monster grab hold of the guy as he struggled with his free hand. The monster lifted him up and opened its big mouth.

The guy screamed in despair, and that snapped Dean out of his daze state as he gritted his bloodied teeth and stood up.

"Heyy!"

He screamed as he wobbly stood up, using every last bit of his strength, and charged towards the monster, intending to ram it.

He charged toward the monster, and his body met it!

”!”

However, the monster didn’t budge one bit!

"Arrrgh!!"

He suddenly heard a horrendous scream as well as the sound of chewing flesh. He felt chills on his back as he tilted his head up a bit.

His eyes widened in shock as the monster chewed on the guy's shoulder as he continued to scream.

Seeing this, Dean immediately clenched his fist and started punching the monster.

"Let him go!"

It seems that bothered the monster, as it freed its other hand to swipe it towards him. Dean tried to dodge when his knees wobbled, still feeling the impact from before.

He defended with his arms, and he was knocked off his feet as his back hit the concrete.

He felt something on his back. A familiar shape, he hurriedly grabbed it, and he felt the cold grip once again. It was his pistol that had been thrown away before.

Not hesitating while sitting up on the ground, he pointed the gun at the monster and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

He pulled the trigger nonstop, and at such a close range, his bullets didn’t miss one bit as blood splattered the air.

It seems that finally got the monster's attention, as it roared and threw the guy he was chewing at.

The monster turned around, and its hideous features turned toward him. Mad, it roared.

"Roaarr! Human! How dare you!"

It spoke with a heavy and scratchy voice. With its heavy body, it charged menacingly toward him.

Dean didn’t bother to shoot more as he hurriedly scrambled himself back to his feet, but the distance between the two was too short.

The monster then stomped his fat foot against his, and Dean screamed in pain.

"Arggh!"

Bang

Bang

Click!

Dean shot the monster in the face, but he ran out of bullets!

"Graoooh!"

The monster was still going strong.

‘Over so soon?’ He thought, He didn’t expect such a situation; he had underestimated the monster and neglected his newly found life.

‘Shit..." Was his last thought before he saw the monster lunging its giant mouth at him.

BOG!

The last thing he heard was an explosion, and everything became dark.

---

"Ugh!"

His eyelids twitched, and he slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was the clean white ceiling.

"What?" He mumbled. He turned his head sideways and realized where he was—he was in an emergency room.

Beds partitioned were lined up as injured people lay and nurses and doctors came about.

Agonies of pain and crying filled the room.

He tried to sit up; his body ached, but he felt he was overall okay. He saw his left foot was wrapped with seemed like a splint. He wiggled his foot but felt fine, At best, it he felt some small pain.

No nurse tended to him, probably because there weren’t enough hands to begin with. Besides, it's not like he needed it.

On the table beside the bed were his essentials, like his wallet and phone.

Grabbing his phone, he checked the time.

12:38pm

It looks like he only slept for a few hours; there were messages and missed calls.

He was about to skim through them, but a particular voice caught his ear.

"Haah... I'll.. always.. with you."

His expression froze, as if he had done something very heinous. Sweat trickled down his face as he walked toward the voice with difficulty.

He walked slowly, wobbly, but with firm steps.

It wasn’t long before he reached the place; it was only two beds away from him. There on the bed, lay a guy with clothing wrapping his right shoulder and bleeding all over, his face pale, and he was not moving.

To his side was a woman holding his hand and crying, and next to her was a little girl bawling her eyes out while tiptoeing, her height reaching only the bed as she gripped the man's gown tightly and cried.

"Huahhh!"

"Daddy!"

Dean's vision blurred a bit, and with every tear and cry, a heavy feeling welled up in his chest. In the end, he couldn’t take it anymore; his legs gave in as he fell on his kness, and with his head hung low, he could only mutter.

"Im..sorry…"

"I’m sorry"

He then couldn’t remember what happened after that, as he passed out and found himself back on his bed.

Bzzz!

His phone rang. With a blank expression, he grabbed his phone by the shoulder and answered.

"Hey man! We saw you in the news! What happened!? Sheesh, are you alright?"

"Fine…"

"Really? That’s good. Still, lucky you, you can have an excuse for this semester! You know work has been piling up! No way the professors and architects will give you something to do after being attacked by monsters. Anyway, we plan to visit you this afternoon; will you still be there?"

Dean pondered for a moment, and for the first time, light shone on his eyes. Scences of what that person said and did to him flashed by his mind. He knew what to do now.

"I'm quitting school." Before his friend could react, he added with firm and determined words and bright, burning eyes!

"I gonna become a HERO!"