-Is this the end of the world?

  That single comment, echoing what millions were probably thinking, sent the like count skyrocketing. As the screen faded to black, the angel’s synthesized voice spoke one last time, making the hairs on Shane’s arms stand up.

  [Only by faith in the one true God, the Absolute, shall ye be saved.]

  [Naught shall escape His eye.]

  And then, just like that, the video cut to normal.

  A blazing sun beat down on a bone-dry canyon. An aerial shot captured the raid teams walking, just tiny figures in a hostile world. The raid teams. The camera slowly zoomed in, focusing on their backs before panning across each of their faces, catching fragments of casual conversation.

  The mood shattered the second the monster wave crashed in.

  The footage immediately showed a few veterans breaking formation to protect the targeted rookie. A wall of Iron-Hide Boars hit their line, and the [Shield] cracked instantly.

  The camera zoomed in to whoever got in the way, and the whole pack pivoted at once. Boars slammed into the closest blocker, shoving them back while Razorbeak birds raked at their helmets. The blockers gave ground, and the original target was exposed all over again.

  Shane could see they weren’t really being overwhelmed. They were just playing it safe, conserving their strength for what could be a long fight.

  Idiots, he thought, taking a drag from his cigarette.

  They should’ve boxed the target.

  If the tanks had stacked their rectangular [Shields] into a cube formation, the target would have been untouchable. The wave hard-locked to one hunter and didn’t retarget unless a person literally blocked its path.

  The rest of the team could have just circled around and hit the monsters from behind while the target was safe inside the box. They would’ve figured this out in two seconds if any of their dozen tanks had actually used a [Shield] skill on the target, or if one of the leaders had made the call.

  Of course, it wasn’t that simple.

  For one, the tanks would want to save their own necks first.

  Why would they burn a high-cooldown [Shield] skill without knowing what came next?

  And even stacked [Shields] only bought you time. You could nest them, sure, but a horde that size would pop the outer barrier in minutes. You couldn’t recast while monsters were attacking it, and adding layers from the inside just shrank the space until the whole thing collapsed.

  The target would still die. Then the System would just pick a new one.

  It’d be a grim loop, thinning the herd.

  But you’d lose fewer people than letting the whole formation break like this.

  The real problem was that with a half-dozen different parties in there and no single leader, who was going to be the one to make that call when they had their own party to worry about?

  Ryan Rowland, at least, was consistently shown sticking close to the targets.

  The editing was kind to him, focusing on his tense, determined expression.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  But the target, panicking at the sight of the horde, ended up using Ryan as bait to bolt. He didn’t make it two steps before a boar gored him from the side.

  Hmm. The rest of them got lucky.

  Any nonverbal cues they had exchanged, like the quick looks that said “let’s abandon the target,” had been cut from the video entirely. The deaths that followed just looked like a series of unavoidable accidents.

  Sympathetic comments started to slowly trickle into the chat.

  The majority, however, were still expressing shock that their preconceived notions about veteran hunters were being challenged.

  -ok wow they’re actually trying

  -Ryan Rowland isn’t an S-rank but he’s a pro. A ton of combat experience and it shows.

  -NOOOO stick with the B-ranker!! Why would you run the other way??

  -Holy shit did he just use ryan as BAIT? Wtf dude

  -My condolences to the families. This is hard to watch.

  -did anyone else catch the rookie looking back right before he bolted? that look is gonna haunt me for weeks.

  When the camera focused on the other hunters, the comments got much more critical, especially toward the lower ranks.

  -C-rank at 5:12 is just windmilling his sword with his eyes closed.

  -that d-rank has no rank glow at all. low ranks dont get the looks buff so i legit thought he was a mob for a sec lol

  ? bro what, ugly = free target now?

  ? sry

  ? not you saying sry after that (skull emoji)

  Shane just shook his head.

  Humans.

  The other comments were… positive. Sort of.

  -7:28 the way she flicks the blood off her sword is fucking badass

  -Ngl this video actually made me like rr. Didn’t expect that today.

  -10:12 form is textbook. Whoever trained her needs a raise.

  -if i looked like that i’d be doing commercials not raids tbh

  A quick skim showed these were all comments about hunters ranked C or higher.

  The camera then cut to a sweeping shot of Ryan’s ultimate skill clearing a path. It felt like the System was intentionally giving more screen time to the high-rankers.

  Shane kept glancing between the video and the comments.

  “…This is taking longer than I thought.”

  They were spending so much time on the first monster wave that his part of the fight hadn’t even started yet.

  If the editing made the first wave look more like the main event and his battle a mere footnote... wouldn't that start a shitstorm over his 50% contribution score?

  If it came to that, he could get stuck dealing with sleazy politicians. And if they tried to make dungeon rewards government property again, like they did in the game—

  Shit.

  It would’ve been better if he could’ve just joined the raid from the beginning.

  But if he had, he would have been the first one targeted.

  And with the [Predator of the Seraphim] title inactive during the first wave, he would have been toast in minutes against a wave of normal monsters.

  Damn it. Should have leveled [Blink] first.

  With enough utility, his combat sense might have been enough to survive the wave.

  If he had acted as bait, the raid teams could have worked together to hit the monsters from behind.

  Would anyone have dared to complain about his contribution score then, when he was the one putting his neck on the line?

  But if he’d done that, he wouldn’t have been able to level up his combat skill, and he wouldn’t have been able to run the dungeons he’d been grinding.

  He had a literal apocalypse to stop. What was the point of saving a few idiots if he was going to let millions—or worse, billions—die when the First Cataclysm arrived?

  The screams and wet crunch of bones were getting more grating, and he felt the urge to mute the thing.

  Anger spiked in his chest. Why did they have to be so deaf? Then get fucking killed and make him watch this?

  Even the cigarette he was smoking suddenly tasted like burning meat. He spat it out, simultaneously tossing the thing into his inventory.

  Out of habit, his hand reached for the burn scar on his face, only to feel smooth skin.

  A deep sigh escaped his lips before he could stop it.

  He suddenly felt very tired, but forced himself to keep watching.

  The video was nearing its end.

  A few C-rank hunters got some screen time, but the star of the show was clearly Ryan Rowland.

  It felt like the System AI was trying to create a narrative of a hero struggling against all odds and achieving a dramatic victory at the end.

  But the tendency of mostly featuring C-rank and higher hunters was bad news for Shane.

  He was getting by on skills and type advantages.

  His actual rank was an F.

  Was the System AI really intentionally editing out low-rank hunters?

  Just as he was about to start rethinking his whole plan, a new voice cut through the chaos on-screen.

  It was Ryan’s.

  [What…?]

  About damn time.

  The monster wave had entered its second phase. The System couldn’t just edit it out completely.

  Shane focused, trying to analyze how future raid recordings might be edited.

  [Fuck!]

  [Divine Beast? Are you kidding me?]

  The hunters stared at the quest window in horror. The classic look of people who had given up.

  And then, a flicker of movement.

  Shane’s outline finally flashed across the screen.

  [What the hell are you waiting for? Kill them.]