SSS-RANK: Super Extraction System-Chapter 2: [02] Second Awakening

Chapter 2: [02] Second Awakening
Three days later, the sky started bleeding.
Well, not literally raining blood, but it sure looked like it. The sun went down, and in its place, the Crimson Moon rose up like a giant, angry eye. It bathed Neo-Veridia City in a thick, red light that made everything look like a scene from a horror movie. Streetlamps flickered nervously. Even the stray cats were hiding.
Leon stood by the window of their small apartment, pressing his forehead against the cool glass.
"It’s creepy," he muttered.
"It’s atmospheric," his mom said from the couch, though she was knitting a scarf so fast her needles were clicking like castanets. That was her nervous tic.
"It’s trouble," his dad corrected, sitting at the kitchen table. He was cleaning his mechanical arm with a rag. Whirrr-click. Whirrr-click. "The energy readings are spiking. I can feel it in my joints. The Eclipse Zones get restless under red light."
Leon checked his datapad. It was buzzing with notifications from the city.
WARNING: REMAIN INDOORS.
WARNING: BARRIER FLUCTUATIONS DETECTED.
He swiped them away. He was still staring at his own status screen on the datapad, the one that listed him as Rank: F-. He had spent the last three days staring at it, hoping it was a typo. It wasn’t.
"Where are the girls?" Leon asked, turning around. The apartment was unusually quiet. Usually, Lily and Maya were loud enough to be registered as a sonic weapon.
Mom stopped knitting. She looked at the clock. "They went to the market. Just down the street. They wanted to buy... oh no."
"Buy what?" Dad asked, his metal fingers freezing.
"A celebration cake," Mom whispered, her face turning pale in the red light. "For Leon. Because we said ranks don’t matter."
Leon’s stomach dropped. The market was right next to the Sector 7 perimeter wall. The wall that was old, cracked, and hadn’t been reinforced since before he was born.
BOOM.
The sound wasn’t loud. It was deep. It shook the floorboards and rattled the dishes in the sink.
Then came the sirens. Not the police sirens, but the Monster Sirens. They were a low, mournful wail that signaled only one thing: The wall was breached.
"Leon, stay here!" Dad shouted, grabbing a heavy wrench from his toolbox. He tried to stand up, but his bad leg buckled. He grunted, forcing himself up with his metal arm.
"No way," Leon said, grabbing his jacket. "You can’t run. I can."
"You have an empty core! You can’t fight!"
"I’m not going to fight," Leon lied. "I’m just going to run really fast."
He didn’t wait for permission. He bolted out the door, jumping down the stairs three at a time.
Outside, the world had gone mad. People were screaming and running in every direction. The red light made it hard to see depth; shadows stretched out like long, black fingers grabbing at ankles.
Leon pushed against the tide of people.
"Move! Let me through!" he yelled.
He saw the breach. A section of the concrete wall near the market had crumbled. Dust filled the air. And through the dust, they came.
Crimson Hounds.
They looked like wolves, if wolves had been turned inside out and set on fire. They were big—size of a motorcycle—with no fur, just raw, red muscle and bone. Their eyes glowed with a hungry yellow light.
There were three of them. They were sniffing the air, drool dripping from jaws that had way too many teeth.
"The market..." Leon gasped.
He sprinted. His lungs burned. He wasn’t an athlete. He was an F-Rank nobody who ate instant noodles. But fear is a powerful fuel.
He skidded around the corner into the market alleyway. Stalls were overturned. Fruit was smashed on the ground.
And there, backed into a dead-end by a dumpster, were Lily and Maya.
They were hugging each other, trembling. Between them and safety stood the three Hounds.
The lead Hound, slightly bigger than the others, growled. It stepped forward, its claws clicking on the pavement. It looked at the girls like they were bite-sized snacks.
"HEY!"
Leon didn’t think. He just yelled.
The Hounds turned their heads. Six yellow eyes locked onto him.
Leon stood there, panting. He looked around for a weapon. A gun? A sword? A laser cannon?
He found a rusty metal pipe lying in a puddle.
Great, he thought. A plumbing supply. That’ll teach them.
He picked it up. It was heavy and smelled like old iron. "Get away from them, you oversized rats!"
The lead Hound lost interest in the girls. This new noisy thing was much more annoying. It crouched low, muscles bunching up in its hind legs.
"Leon, run!" Lily screamed.
"Go away, Leon!" Maya cried.
"Shut up and close your eyes!" Leon shouted back, his voice shaking.
He stood in front of his sisters. He raised the pipe. His hands were sweating so much he could barely hold it.
He knew, with absolute certainty, that he was going to die. He had 12 energy points. This Hound probably had 500. It was simple math.
I’m sorry, Mom. I’m sorry, Dad. At least the girls might get away while it’s eating me.
The Hound lunged.
It moved so fast it was a blur. Leon swung the pipe blindly.
Clang.
The pipe hit the Hound’s shoulder. It felt like hitting a brick wall. The shockwave rattled Leon’s bones. The Hound didn’t even flinch. It just swatted Leon aside with a massive paw.
Leon flew backward and slammed into the brick wall. Pain exploded in his back. He slid down, gasping for air. His vision went fuzzy.
The Hound loomed over him, opening its jaws. He could smell its breath—rotten meat and sulfur.
Time seemed to slow down. He could see the slobber hanging from its teeth. He could see the red moon reflected in its eyes.
Is this it? Leon thought. F-Rank life, F-Rank death?
He felt a surge of anger. Not fear. Anger. It wasn’t fair. He just wanted to pay the rent. He just wanted his sisters to be safe. Why did he have to be so weak?
I wish... I wish I could kill them all.
As the Hound’s teeth descended towards his throat, something clicked inside Leon’s chest.
It wasn’t a heartbeat. It was the sound of a lock breaking.
A cold sensation, colder than ice, flooded his veins. It started in his empty core and shot outwards, filling his limbs with a dark, heavy pressure.
And then, the world stopped.
Literally stopped. The Hound froze in mid-air. A drop of drool hung suspended in space. The red light of the moon dimmed, replaced by a deep, calming blue.
A transparent screen popped up right in front of Leon’s face. It looked like a computer window from an old sci-fi game.
[ SYSTEM ACTIVATED ]
[ HOST FOUND: LEON VALE ]
[ CONDITION: NEAR DEATH ]
[ PROTOCOL: EMERGENCY AWAKENING ]
Leon blinked. "What the...?"
[ CONGRATULATIONS! ]
[ CLASS: SHADOW MONARCH’S HEIR (LOCKED) ]
[ CURRENT STATUS: LEVEL 1 ]
[ SKILL UNLOCKED: SHADOW EXTRACTION ]
[ SKILL UNLOCKED: LESSER AGILITY ]
The text scrolled fast.
[ ENEMY DETECTED. DO YOU WISH TO FIGHT? ]
[ Y / N ]
Leon looked at the frozen Hound. Then he looked at the floating ’Y’.
"Yes," he croaked. "Obviously."
[ ACKNOWLEDGED. ASSISTED COMBAT MODE ENGAGED. ]
Time snapped back into motion.
The Hound’s jaws snapped shut but Leon wasn’t there.
His body moved on its own. It felt weird, like being a passenger in a car driven by a professional racer. He rolled to the left, faster than he had ever moved in his life.
He was on his feet instantly. The pipe felt light as a feather now.
The Hound landed on the empty pavement, confused. It turned around, growling.
Leon didn’t wait. He stepped forward. He could see... lines. Red lines drawn on the Hound’s body. A glowing red spot on the back of its neck.
Weak point, his brain whispered. Or maybe the System whispered it.
Leon swung the pipe. This time, he didn’t swing blindly. He swung with precision.
CRACK.
The pipe smashed into the glowing red spot on the Hound’s neck. The bone shattered. The monster yelped—a high-pitched, pathetic sound—and collapsed to the ground, twitching.
[ ENEMY DEFEATED ]
[ EXPERIENCE GAINED: 10 ]
Leon stood over the dead beast, breathing hard. The other two Hounds stared at him. They looked confused. Their dinner just fought back.
"Leon?" Lily whispered from the corner. "Did you... did you do ninja moves?"
Leon stared at the dead monster. A black, smoky vapor was rising from its body. It swirled around, looking like a ghost.
Another blue box popped up.
[ SHADOW DETECTED. ]
[ EXTRACT? ]
Leon reached out his hand without thinking. It felt like an instinct, like knowing how to breathe.
"Extract," he commanded.
The black smoke shrieked silently and flew into Leon’s palm. It vanished into his skin. He felt a rush of energy—cold, sharp, and powerful. It wasn’t like electricity. It was like drinking a glass of ice water on a hot day.
[ EXTRACTION SUCCESSFUL ]
[ STAT BOOST: STRENGTH +3 ]
Leon gripped the pipe. He squeezed it, and the rusty metal actually bent under his fingers.
Strength plus three? That feels like Strength plus a hundred.
He turned to the other two Hounds. His eyes, usually a warm brown, flashed with a faint, purple light.
"Who’s next?" he said.
The Hounds growled and charged together.
If this was five minutes ago, Leon would be dog food. But now? Now he had Lesser Agility.
He saw them coming in slow motion. He ducked under the first one’s claws. He spun around, slamming the pipe into its ribs. Crunch.
The second one tried to bite his leg. Leon jumped actually jumped six feet into the air. He landed on the Hound’s back and brought the pipe down on its skull.
It was over in ten seconds.
Three dead monsters. One dented pipe. One F-Rank boy standing in the middle of the carnage.
[ LEVEL UP! ]
[ CURRENT LEVEL: 2 ]
Leon dropped the pipe. His hands were shaking again, but not from fear. It was adrenaline. It was power.
"Leon!"
The twins rushed forward and tackled him. They were crying now, burying their faces in his jacket.
"You killed them!" Maya sobbed. "You smashed them!"
"Yeah," Leon muttered, patting their heads. "I guess I did."
He looked at his hands. The blue screens were fading away. The cold power in his chest settled down, humming quietly like a sleeping engine.
Heavy footsteps echoed down the alley.
"Police! Stay where you are!"
Three armored Enforcers ran into the alley, guns raised. They stopped dead when they saw the three massive Crimson Hound corpses.
Behind them, huffing and puffing, was Leon’s dad. He was limping badly, holding his wrench.
"Leon! Girls!" Dad pushed past the cops. He dropped to his knees and hugged all three of them. "Are you hurt? Did they bite you?"
"No, Dad," Leon said. "We’re fine."
The lead Enforcer lowered his gun. He kicked one of the dead Hounds. "Clean kills. Shattered vertebrae. Blunt force trauma." He looked at Leon, then at his dad. "Who did this? We got s of a high-level breach."
Dad looked at the pipe on the ground. Then he looked at Leon. He saw the calmness in Leon’s eyes. He saw the way Leon was standing not slouching, but standing tall.
Dad had been a soldier. He knew what a killer looked like. And right now, his gentle, F-Rank son looked like a killer.
"A Hunter," Dad lied smoothly, standing up. "A guy in a black cloak. He passed through, saved my kids, and jumped over that wall. Didn’t catch his name."
The Enforcer frowned. "A cloak, huh? Probably some vigilante type showing off. Lucky for you." He tapped his radio. "Sector 7 clear. Threats neutralized by third party."
The cops moved on to secure the area.
Dad turned back to Leon. His mechanical hand gripped Leon’s shoulder. It was tight.
"A guy in a cloak?" Leon whispered.
"We’ll talk later," Dad said, his voice low. "At home. With the blinds closed."
Leon nodded. He looked back at the spot where the first Hound had died. The shadow was gone, absorbed into him.
He felt the System waiting in the back of his mind.
[ QUEST COMPLETE: SURVIVE ]
[ REWARD: YOU GET TO LIVE ANOTHER DAY. ]
Leon almost smiled. The System had an attitude.
He picked up the twins, one in each arm. They felt lighter than usual. Or maybe he was just stronger.
"Let’s go home," Leon said. "I think Mom is going to be really mad we forgot the cake."
Above them, the Crimson Moon still glowed, but it didn’t look so scary anymore. It just looked like a target.