The Hunter Monarch

The weeks that followed settled into a rhythm, a steady, grueling beat that Lin Yu came to know as the grind. It was the most stable and, in its own way, the happiest period he had known since waking up in this new world.

His days were spent diving into D-Rank Doors with Su Wan's party. He was no longer a one-off hire but a fixture, an accepted part of the team. The name "Zero" was never uttered in his presence by the four of them. They called him Lin Yu. It was a small thing, a basic decency, but it felt monumental.

The randomness of the Layers became his new classroom. One day they would be navigating the "Whispering Marshes," the air thick with hallucinogenic pollen, and Lin Yu, remembering a footnote in a pirated botany guide, would discreetly pass around the cheap, foul-smelling filtration plugs he had bought, saving them all from a disorienting trip. The next, they'd be in the "Ember Pits," a volcanic hellscape of fire elementals and lava flows. He would, seemingly by chance, always have an extra heat-resistant canteen or a salve for minor burns ready in his pack.

His contributions were always subtle, always deniable. He would never say, "According to my research, this creature's hide is vulnerable to acid." Instead, he would simply make sure Li Mei's quiver was stocked with a few extra acid-tipped arrows, a "special deal" he'd found at a market stall. They never questioned it, attributing his foresight to luck or an obsessive level of preparation befitting his role. They learned to trust his quiet "suggestions" and his uncanny ability to have the right cheap tool at the right time. Their teamwork became a fluid, unspoken dance, and Lin Yu, for the first time, felt like a cog in a functioning machine, not just dead weight being carried along.

The evenings were his own. After the runs, he and Su Wan would often share a meal, their conversations evolving from mission debriefs to something more personal. He learned about her childhood in one of the outer-rim agricultural sectors, her quiet frustration with the city's arrogance, her dream of one day earning enough to buy a small plot of land far away from the noise and the Doors.

In turn, he found himself opening up to her, sharing the profound sense of dislocation that was his constant companion, the feeling of being a ghost wearing a stranger's face. She never offered easy platitudes. She just listened, her presence a quiet anchor in the chaotic sea of his non-memory. Their bond, forged in the shared understanding of powerlessness, was now being tempered by genuine friendship and a deepening, unspoken affection. He found himself looking forward to the end of a run not just for the pay, but for the quiet hour they would spend together afterwards on their bench, watching the city's river of lights flow below.

But for every moment of progress, there was a shadow growing longer, and its name was Zhao Hu.

The leader of Tiger's Fury seemed to have made it his personal mission to torment Lin Yu. The harassment escalated from simple mockery to a deliberate campaign of interference. If Su Wan's party was registering for a Door, Zhao Hu would be there, loudly proclaiming how he'd heard the Layer was "bugged" and that only an idiot would go in, attempting to spook the younger members. He spread rumors through the Hunter forums, painting Lin Yu as a jinx, a "curse-carrier" who brought bad luck to any party he joined.

One afternoon, as Lin Yu was restocking his pack at a market, two of Zhao Hu's cronies "accidentally" bumped into him, sending his carefully organized supplies spilling into the street. They laughed as they walked away, leaving him to pick his things out of the gutter.

Su Wan's response to this escalating aggression was a cold, dangerous fury. She confronted Zhao Hu directly in the main plaza, her voice low and threatening, promising severe consequences if he or his men ever laid a hand on Lin Yu again. The public confrontation, with a top Warrior essentially declaring a low-ranked Zero as being under her personal protection, only added fuel to Zhao Hu's obsessive fire. It cemented Lin Yu in the public eye as "Su Wan's pet," and made Zhao Hu's quest to ruin him a matter of public pride.

Lin Yu felt like the rope in a tug-of-war he never asked to join. He urged Su Wan to let it go, to ignore them, fearing that her defense of him would only bring her trouble.

"Never," she told him, her eyes flashing with a protective fire. "The moment we let bullies like him dictate our lives is the moment we've already lost. We don't back down. Not ever."

He admired her strength, her unyielding principles. But he also saw the storm clouds gathering on the horizon. Zhao Hu was not the type to be deterred by threats. A man whose pride had been so thoroughly wounded would not simply give up. He would only become more cunning, more ruthless. The grind continued, day in and day out, but the steady rhythm now carried a new, ominous undertone. It was the beat of a drum, slow and steady, counting down to a confrontation that felt both inevitable and terrifying.