Chapter 1: Waking Up.

“… disgrace.”

The first thing that Hum did when he woke up was to mutter a curse, because he had slept badly; his whole body ached; it was natural, after all, he had bought a new bed, and like every new bed, the mattress was hard and would take a few days to soften.

Hum got up and went to the kitchen to get some bread and a glass of water. He ate the bread in a few seconds and drank all the water in one gulp. After that, Hum, like a noble and upstanding citizen, obviously went to his computer.

He has always been an internet addict; if it weren't for his job, he would spend the whole day online researching crap; of course, Hum is not a pervert and only watches more appealing content occasionally; most of the content he consumes comes down to mini internet courses that he finds for free and audiobooks. 

Hum is a cultured man; despite consuming a lot of junk, not all the junk he consumes is just more junk; it has its practical uses... many times. 

“For now, a guild has been made. If you are an Awakened, call this number: xxxxxx.”

“Pff, just make new laws about it.”

The only thing Hum could do when he heard about Portals that connected the earth dimension with other dimensions appearing all over the world about a month ago was laugh. From these portals, monsters came and went.

Common weapons are usually capable of dealing with most monsters, but there are certain types of monsters that only an atomic bomb would be able to do any damage to. Therefore, as a kind of miracle, people capable of fighting these monsters have emerged; they are called the Awakened. 

Telekinesis, creating fire out of thin air and super strength; needless to say, the abilities of such beings border on the supernatural, and many do not even have a scientific explanation. 

Despite being initially worried about his job, after all, Hum, despite being the classic common CLT and working on a 5x1 scale (many consider him lucky), he is just another common person.

Yes, Hum did not awaken any powers. Many times, he cried in the shower while wondering why this happened while feeling envious of his neighbor's son who at 15 years old already had a car thanks to the money he earned doing stupid dances on his TikTok profile. But as a mature and functional adult man, he swallowed his tears and continued to do what a mature and functional adult does best: ignore his own feelings and pretend they don't exist in the perhaps futile hope that they would go away. 

Despite this, nothing stressed him more than politics; as a resident of Brazil (curiously called Bostil by Brazilians themselves), here, almost everything is slow. After the emergence of portals and awakenings, within a few days, some countries in North America already had laws and had already created guilds. Brazil only created the first guild after the tragedy in Salvador was destroyed.

Salvador, the capital of the state of Bahia in northeastern Brazil, is known for its Portuguese colonial architecture, Afro-Brazilian culture and tropical coastline. The Pelourinho neighborhood is its historic heart, with cobblestone alleys opening onto grand plazas, colorful buildings and baroque churches like the one in São Francisco, with gilded woodwork. All of that has turned to dust.

But other than that, it's all good; even if he's not an awakened man, he's a competent man who would hardly lose his job. At least, that's what this idiot thinks. 

Hum went into the bathroom, peed, shit, cleaned himself, took a shower, put on the classic clothes of an average Brazilian worker and left the house just to remember that today is Saturday and he doesn't have to work.

“Holy shit.”

When Hum turned to go back inside, his house was gone, replaced by a blue portal. He looked around, blinked, and pinched his cheek. 

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“Holy shit.”

Despite cursing, Hum initially didn't understand what had happened. It took Hum 5 seconds to finally understand the situation he found himself in.

“HOLY SHIT!!!”

The house he had worked so hard to build was destroyed, and as if that wasn't enough, it was because of a portal! In addition to losing his house, he would also lose the land itself, because according to the government, the place was no longer “suitable for living”.

“Holy shit! Fuck you son of a bitch, I'm screwed!! Fuck you son of a bitch!! What a fucking disgrace, what a fucking disgrace, what a fucking son of a bitch. Go fuck yourself, fuck you.”

Wise words came out of Hum's mouth; despite being a cultured man and usually not swearing... in fact, Hum had never sworn so much in his entire short life. Hum is not only an introverted, elegant and educated man, he is also someone who does not like trouble; basically, he avoids fights at all costs. The only fight he has ever gotten into head first in his entire life was the lawsuit he filed against his neighbor Júlio, the drunkard son of a bitch who stole his motorcycle last Sunday. Unfortunately, Júlio went after him to get satisfaction, and Hum had to take out his humble and efficient .38 and put Júlio in the bullet. 

In simple words, Hum shot Júlio so much that he became the equivalent of a normal country street; full of holes and neglected by the city hall; the bum had no family and the case was interpreted as self-defense by the justice system because of the cameras that recorded the moment Júlio tried to attack him.

“Now what do I do?”

Hum hates confused people who don't know what to do in times of crisis. Ironically, he became a confused person in a time of crisis. He regretted judging such people and directing such feelings toward them; Hum is not as efficient a person as he thought he was; he just hadn't been involved in a situation that hit him hard emotionally.

He sat down on the sidewalk and sighed; he didn't lose everything, but he lost a good part of what he had. Accepting that the government will take his land, mine, explore and monopolize a Dungeon on his land and he won't receive anything for it made Hum's heart tighten. 

It is no understatement to say that the anger Hum felt was so great that it could have caused a heart attack and killed him on the spot. Fortunately, Hum's cardiovascular health is decent and he did not have any problems... apparently.

“Hi. What happened…”

“What the fuck, damn it?”

Hum couldn't hold back his anger when he heard the voice of Carla, the gossipy neighbor in his neighborhood. He always thought that gossipy neighbors only existed in poor neighborhoods until he moved to a significantly rich neighborhood and changed his mind. 

Hum remembered the day he was robbed and told Carla about it. What did the idiot do? She told everyone in the neighborhood that he was robbed by his own boyfriend and that he was gay. He almost sued her, but gave up when she knelt on the floor and begged him not to go to court.

Of course, that wasn't the only reason Hum didn't sue Carla; suing someone in Brazil is complicated. You need money and good lawyers, and most of the neighbors here wouldn't even show up to testify, leaving few witnesses. That's why he gave up.

“No need to be rude.”

“Then get out of here.”

Carla clicked her tongue and left. When she heard the click, Hum died of rage inside.

“There should be a law…”

Hum stopped in the middle of his sentence when he realized that complaining about Carla wouldn't do any good. At least she got out of there. And that made him sigh in relief. 

After all this, Hum realized that the portal was... strange. Well, it was already strange in itself, after all, it is a portal that connects this reality to another dimension, but this portal was different from the others.

There are 6 classifications for portals. 1 green, yellow, pink, red, purple and black, but never a blue one. Sure, it could be that the portal is so weak that it didn't register, but how can a portal of minor danger destroy an entire house? Impossible. 

Hum felt a strange sensation as he stared at that portal, and that sensation intensified when a giant hand came out of the portal and touched the ground. After that, little by little, a monster came out of the portal and revealed itself to the world. 

When Hum saw that, he was sure that it wasn't just a monster; it was a demon.

Hum got up and ran as fast as he could, but that wasn't enough to escape the monster, who quickly caught up with him and cut off his head.

Hum lost consciousness.