Ethan was flung out of the blinding white flash and tumbled onto muddy ground.
A light rain slapped gently against his face. He coughed, pushing himself up with trembling hands, and what greeted him first wasn't stone ruins or dense forest, but a narrow, damp-smelling alley, hemmed in by cracked brick walls hung with ragged laundry.
[Location Detected: Lower District, City of Havermoor] [Warning: Host Separated from Rightful Owner. Synchronization Unstable.]
Ethan stood, his head still ringing, and the sounds of the city began seeping into his ears—merchants shouting in the distance, cart wheels creaking over cobblestone, dogs barking back and forth, and a small church bell tolling softly to mark the change of the hour. He stepped out of the narrow alley toward the main road, and the sight that greeted him made him stop short.
The city was alive, bustling, full of colors that contrasted sharply with the ruins of Aldmere he'd just left. People moved back and forth wearing clothes from every walk of life—some tattered like his own, others in expensive gold-embroidered robes with armed escorts trailing behind. The smell of spices from food stalls mixed with charcoal smoke and the scent of wet horses, creating an unfamiliar aroma that somehow, for some part of him, felt faintly recognizable. Above the heads of a few passersby, small status boxes occasionally flickered into view, visible to Ethan even though the people themselves seemed unaware of them.
A small child collided with him from the side, dashing off in a hurry while clutching something in his hand.
"Sorry, sir!" the boy shouted without turning back, sprinting on through the crowd.
A few seconds later, a plump fruit vendor came running after him, shouting angrily, "Thief! Catch him!"
Ethan stepped back to the edge of the road, letting the crowd pass, and his eyes accidentally caught something that felt off. The small status box floating above the vendor's head showed a level far higher than the ordinary people around him, and a small crossed-swords symbol appeared beside it.
[Warning: Individual Detected with Active Combat Class. Level 34.]
An ordinary fruit vendor shouldn't have had a level that high, let alone a combat class. Ethan had just begun to step away when a familiar voice called out his name from within the crowd.
"Ethan Cole?"
He turned sharply, his heart pounding, bracing for another threat, but standing before him wasn't an enemy. A young woman with brown hair tied back carelessly, wearing a leather coat covered in patches, stared at him with an expression mixing shock and wariness.
"How do you know my name?" Ethan asked, stepping back reflexively, his hand raised on guard even though he had no idea what he'd actually do.
"I didn't," the woman answered quickly, "until my System just displayed it." She raised her hand, pointing toward the space above Ethan's own head, the place where Ethan's name and level were usually visible only to himself. "You've got a strange marker above your name. It reads 'Anomaly: Unauthorized Vessel.' I've never seen that before."
Ethan felt his stomach twist. If this stranger could see that marker, who else could see it too?
"My name's Selene," the woman continued, her voice quieter now, her eyes darting left and right as though making sure no one was listening. "I'm an information hunter. And you, somehow, just became the most valuable piece of news in this entire district."
Before Ethan could ask anything further, a great bell tolled loudly from a tower at the city's center, its sound echoing far beyond the market's noise, silencing the entire crowd for a moment.
[City System Announcement: Open Level Hunt Activated. Target: Unauthorized Vessel Anomaly. Reward: 500 Gold Coins and a Noble Title.]
The noise that had briefly gone silent now erupted into a different kind of commotion, no longer ordinary market chatter, but quick whispers and searching glances that began sweeping around for something—or someone.
Selene grabbed Ethan's arm fast, dragging him back into the narrow alley where he'd first appeared, her steps nimble as she dodged puddles and piles of scrap wood. "That's you," she hissed. "Someone just put a bounty on your head, and half the city just heard it."
"Why would anyone want to hunt me?" Ethan asked, panicked, his voice trembling slightly, following Selene's quick pace through the alley as it grew narrower and darker.
"I don't know," Selene answered, her eyes still scanning the end of the alley warily, "but five hundred gold coins and a noble title isn't a small sum in this city. People will kill each other for a fraction of that reward, let alone this much."
They turned into another alley intersection, their steps growing faster and more urgent, and right at its end, three figures stood blocking the way, each wearing a silver badge shaped like an open eye on their chest.
"Unauthorized Vessel Anomaly," one of them said, his voice flat and satisfied, his hand already drawing a short sword from its sheath, his eyes glinting with calculation. "You were easier to find than we expected."
Selene pushed Ethan back, her eyes darting quickly in search of another way out, checking every corner, but the alley behind them had already been sealed by a dead-end wall neither of them had noticed before.
"Perfect," Selene muttered, her voice thick with bitter sarcasm as she glanced back. "A dead end."
The three badge-wearing figures stepped forward in unison, their swords gleaming in the dim light of the falling dusk, and behind them, more shadows began gathering at the mouth of the alley, drawn by the bell's toll still echoing across the city. One of them tapped his sword lazily against the brick wall, as if the fight were already a foregone victory before it even began, while another smirked and started counting down on his fingers, seeming to savor the moment before pouncing on cornered prey.
[Warning: Six Armed Individuals Detected Approaching. Average Level: 20 and Above.]