The city had turned feral by midnight. Sirens wailed somewhere far behind you while crowds shoved through neon-lit streets, everyone too distracted by panic, traffic, and rain to notice one terrified person weaving between them. Your hood clung to your head as you kept scanning faces,delivery riders, exhausted office workers, couples arguing on sidewalks. Any of them could be one of the hunters.

Twenty-four hours, that was the deal. Survive one day, erase every debt drowning your family for years.

Your phone suddenly buzzed in your palm.

LOCATION REVEALED — 15 SECONDS

Your stomach dropped.

You immediately shoved through the crowd, ignoring curses thrown your way, sprinting toward the nearest office building. The guards barely looked up before you slammed through the lobby and hit the elevator button repeatedly. The doors opened. You stumbled inside, jabbing the close button.

Five seconds left.

Four.

Three

A hand stopped the doors.

Your breath caught.

A tall man stepped inside calmly, dressed in a charcoal suit despite the rain outside. Sharp eyes. Clean posture. The kind of face that looked emotionless even when tired. He glanced sideways at you briefly before facing forward again.

Silence swallowed the elevator.

You could hear your own heartbeat.

The elevator finally chimed on the twenty-second floor. The man stepped out first.

The second the doors fully opened, you bolted the opposite direction, shoes slipping against polished tiles before ducking into the restroom. You locked yourself inside a stall and climbed onto the toilet seat just as measured footsteps entered.

The footsteps stopped outside the stalls. From the man’s perspective, the restroom was empty.

Keth frowned slightly.

He checked beneath each stall calmly before reaching the sinks. He rolled his sleeves up, washing blood from his knuckles from some earlier fight before fixing his hair with almost obsessive precision. Then he opened his briefcase.

Inside sat rows of deadly weapons

His expression barely changed.

He slowly started kicking each stall door before he kicked your stall door open without warning.

You froze.

Keth stared at you with visible disappointment before pulling out his phone and dialing someone.

“I flew across three countries for this?” he said dryly once the call connected. “Last hunt ended in under an hour. Thought maybe this one would finally be worth the trip.”

A voice crackled faintly through the speaker. "Look I promise that I would deliver a more quality hunt next time keth."

You clenched your jaw, heart hammering.

The moment his attention shifted back to the phone, you slammed your foot against the broken stall door. It smashed straight into his face with a sharp crack.

Keth staggered backward with a curse while you bolted out of the restroom.

“Goddamn—”

Hours blurred afterward.

A woman pretending to sell cigarettes tried stabbing you in an alley. A sniper shattered café windows moments after you sat down. You hijacked a stranger’s car only for two motorcycle assassins to chase you across flooded streets.

You yanked the wheel hard, sending one biker crashing beneath a truck while the other kept firing wildly.

Your phone buzzed again.

12 HOURS REMAINING

You ditched the car inside an underground parking structure, breathing hard, only for another assassin to suddenly grab your throat from behind.

“Got you.”

A blade pressed against your ribs.

Then a shot echoed.

The assassin collapsed instantly.

Keth stood several meters away lowering a silenced pistol, rainwater dripping from his dark hair. His expression looked irritated more than relieved.

The surviving assassin nearby snapped, “You stole my kill!”

Keth grabbed him by the collar and shoved him into a concrete pillar hard enough to crack bone.

“I said,” he replied coldly, “they’re mine.”

His eyes shifted toward you afterward. “Now to pick up where we left off.” he said with amusement, scanning your heavily injured body.