The Hunter Monarch

The silver curtain of the portal shimmered, swallowing Lin Yu whole. For a single, horrifying heartbeat, the entire plaza seemed to hold its breath. The moment hung, suspended in time, a tableau of chaos frozen by shock.

Then Su Wan screamed.

It was not a cry of fear, but a raw, soul-tearing roar of his name. "LIN YU!"

The sound shattered the stunned silence, and the frozen scene exploded back into motion. Plaza guards, their faces grim, converged on the source of the disturbance, their heavy boots thudding on the stone. Their initial targets were the assassin twins, Lin and Feng, who were already lowering their weapons and raising their hands in a practiced gesture of surrender.

"It was a stupid argument, sir!" Lin shouted, her voice laced with a convincing tremor of regret. "He insulted my honor! It got out of hand. I'm sorry, we're sorry! We'll pay the fine for illegal skill usage!"

The guards immediately began herding them away, their focus entirely on the clear, obvious transgression.

Meanwhile, Chen had finally disentangled himself from the terrified rookie Kai had shoved into him. "Are you alright?" Chen asked the boy, his own face a mask of confusion and anger. He looked from the crying rookie to the portal where Lin Yu had vanished, trying to piece together the whirlwind of events.

Su Wan paid none of this any mind. Her world had narrowed to a single point of burning, incandescent rage. She shoved past her own stunned teammates, her eyes locking onto the one person she knew was responsible. Zhao Hu.

He stood a few meters away, his arms slightly raised, his expression a perfect portrait of shock and concern. His lieutenants, Bao and Kai, were already crafting their own roles.

"Did you see that?" Bao was saying loudly to a nearby Hunter. "He just… tripped! The poor kid must have gotten startled by the noise and lost his footing."

"She came running out of nowhere!" Kai added, pointing a thumb back towards Su Wan. "Nearly knocked Bao over. The whole thing was a mess."

Their voices were a chorus of calculated innocence, sowing the seeds of their false narrative into the fertile ground of the crowd's confusion. They were building their alibi in real-time, brick by painstaking brick.

Su Wan ignored them all. She strode directly up to Zhao Hu, stopping so close that the tips of their boots were nearly touching. The sheer force of her fury was a palpable thing, an aura of killing intent so potent that even Zhao Hu's practiced smirk faltered for a fraction of a second.

"You," she seethed, her voice a low, trembling whisper that was more terrifying than any shout. "You did this."

Zhao Hu quickly recovered, his face settling back into a mask of solemn regret. He shook his head slowly. "Captain Su, I understand your distress, but what happened was a tragedy of chaos. My own people acted recklessly," he said, gesturing towards his twins being written up by the guards. "A bystander was knocked into your Paladin. In the confusion, your Pack Mule… he stumbled. It was a terrible, unfortunate accident."

Every word was a perfectly polished lie, a shield against her accusation. He had witnesses. He had a diversion. He had chaos on his side. He had, she realized with a fresh wave of sickening rage, the perfect defense.

"There are no accidents with you, Zhao Hu," she snarled, her hand clenching and unclenching at her side, itching for the hilt of her sword. She wanted to draw it, to cut through his smug lies and carve the truth from his flesh. But she couldn't. The guards were here. An attack now would see her arrested, her license revoked. She would lose any chance of finding Lin Yu.

"You're being hysterical," Zhao Hu said, his tone shifting to one of condescending pity. It was a masterful stroke, painting her as an emotional, grieving woman who was letting her feelings cloud her judgment. "We are all witnesses to what happened. Your grief is understandable, but don't let it twist the truth."

She stared into his eyes, searching for a flicker of guilt, a hint of triumph. She found nothing but a cold, placid surface, a reflection of her own powerless fury. He had constructed his lie so perfectly that it had become the reality of the situation. Her accusations, without proof, were just the heartbroken ravings of a woman who had lost a friend. He had not only defeated Lin Yu; he had utterly and completely defeated her.

A deathly calm settled over Su Wan. The fire in her eyes didn't go out; it was banked, contained, transformed into something colder and harder than steel. She held Zhao Hu's gaze for one last, long moment, making a silent vow of her own. I will find proof. I don't know how, but I will ruin you.

Without another word, she spun on her heel and began to walk towards the shimmering C-Rank portal. For a wild, desperate second, her only instinct was to follow him, to plunge into the unknown and search for him herself. Her body tensed, ready to make the jump.

But she stopped, her boots grinding on the stone just meters from the threshold. Her mind, a warrior's mind trained in logic and probability, caught up with her grief. It's useless, it screamed at her. The transit is random. You could enter a thousand times and never find his Layer. A blind jump is a suicide mission, not a rescue. The cold, hard reality of the System's rules was a cage around her heart. She couldn't follow him. The path was gone.

She turned away from the portal, her face a mask of stone.

"Su Wan, wait!" Chen called out, taking a step towards her. "What are we going to do?"

Su Wan didn't look back. Her voice, when she spoke, was devoid of its usual warmth, chipped and sharp like broken ice.

"The mission is scrubbed," she said, her words clipped and final. "Go home. I have a report to file."

She walked away without another word, a solitary figure disappearing into the uncaring morning crowd, leaving her stunned teammates and a quietly triumphant Zhao Hu behind. She didn't go to her apartment to grieve. She didn't go to a tavern to drown her rage. She walked, with cold, robotic steps, into the grand, sterile lobby of the Hunter's Association tower. She bypassed the bustling mission boards and went straight to the administrative sector, to the office for filing incident reports and declaring a Hunter "Missing in Action."

The formal process was a cruel, bureaucratic torture, but her face remained a mask of chilling, unreadable resolve. As she filled out the digital forms, declaring Lin Yu lost to a "transit anomaly," every tap of her finger on the screen was a silent vow. This report was a lie she was forced to legitimize. The system had failed him. From now on, she would only trust in her own strength. Power was the only truth this world respected, and she would acquire it, no matter the cost.

Zhao Hu watched her go, the mask of concern finally melting away, replaced by the faint, triumphant smirk of a predator whose trap had not only caught its intended prey, but had irrevocably broken his true rival in the process. He had won. Utterly.