Freyr, at first, wanted to run in the direction of the safe zone’s dome, but there weren’t a lot of hunters over there. He didn’t want to burden them with more work because they were already protecting people. It was much harder to protect people while battling, so he decided it was not a good idea to go over there. 

That was why he ran in the direction of the other Hunters, hoping someone would notice that there was a giant, razor tooth worm chasing after him.  

The worm was not only really long, but it was also wide. It moved slowly, but because of its size, it seemed like it was moving a lot faster. 

Freyr, who was originally an office worker and a couch potato, was running on pure adrenaline and willpower. His legs were numb, but he knew that if he stopped running, he would die, and he didn’t want to die yet. 

He still hadn’t married his favorite character nor had he even finished the storyline yet. He was savoring it because he thought he had time. Now, he didn’t even know if his console worked. 

Freyr seemed to be the only one running on this street. All the monsters were focused on getting to him, but he could only whack them with his Mist Deck or with the kitchen knife. 

Down the street from his apartment building was a canal. If he could get to the other side, maybe the worm would fall into the water and give him time to run to safety!  

His heart was racing so fast, his lungs were hurting, and his eyes seemed to get blurrier. These stupid flying monsters were scratching and biting at him, but he couldn’t feel them. He could only see it happening to him. 

Freyr could see the canal getting closer and closer, but there were only monsters surrounding him. 

He could still hear the sound of the other hunters but no one was coming to help him. Were they battling another giant worm? Was there more? 

Was he going to die like this? No, he didn’t want to die without a fight, but he wasn’t even an awakened Hunter and he didn’t have a proper weapon. 

When he finally got to the canal, he could see weird-looking monsters swimming and jumping out of the water. They were all looking at him with hungry eyes. Then he turned around to look at the worm that was getting close. He felt the canal was not enough to contain the giant worm.

He couldn’t jump into the water because of the newly added monsters. The canal was smaller than the worm, so it wouldn’t even go into it. He miscalculated but that was okay. 

Freyr took a deep breath and tossed the knife to the side. It was too small and blunt, so he may as well use his trusty hand console that had saved him many times. The cover looked like it was about to come off and the screen protector was crumbling, cutting into his hands.

This whole time, he didn't awaken, so how could he even beat this monster worm? How could he survive this?

He couldn't run anymore. He also didn't want to go down without a fight. 

Freyr held the beat-up console in front of him and rushed toward the giant worm that was coming toward him. His plan was to get eaten and stab this console into the worm until it either got wounded or vomited him up! Or he could just die in the worm... Well, this was all he had so he had to give it his all!

"Argggghhh!" Freyr gave his best battle cry to psych himself up. He lifted the console up, like a sword, and felt this was the dumbest shit he had ever done. 

A bright light coming from his hands blinded him but he didn't care. He felt the console in his hands morph into a weapon. 

The worm's mouth swallowed him but he still didn't open his eyes. He slammed whatever was in his hands into the inside of the worm, hoping for the best. The squirming, moist insides of the worm stopped moving. 

The worm went limp after his attack, mouth slightly opened.

Freyr was covered by the worm’s mucus, which had a numbing effect, but that didn’t stop him from stumbling his way out of the worm. 

He really killed it! He actually awakened as a Hunter! 

He did his best to avoid the worm’s teeth but he still fell and hit the ground. 

When he opened his eyes, it was still blurry, but he could see the outline of a gardening hoe in his hands. This was his weapon? Well, at least it killed this monster. 

He could hear the sounds of people talking, but he couldn’t make out what any of them were saying. 

He saw a group of Hunters coming toward him. In particular, he noticed a handsome man who looked similar to the person he was going to romance in his favorite fantasy farming sim… 

The gardening hoe in his hands disappeared and his consciousness faded. He was tired. Let him sleep… 

When Freyr passed out, he passed out in the arms of handsome Hunter who rushed over to help him. 

All across the safe zone, these giant B-class worms popped up. Even though they were classified as B-class, the worm’s mucus could numb even an S-rank Hunter.  

Everyone saw Freyr, in his beat-up blue pajamas, stumbling out of the worm’s mouth with a gardening hoe in hand. He was covered in mucus and it made his silver hair stick up in gravity-defying directions, but he was alive. 

When the hunters looked inside the worm, they saw it had 9 holes in a 3x3 layout. It went through the insides of the worm and coincidentally struck at the energy core of the worm, killing it. 

After Freyr passed out, the handsome man who picked him up escorted him out of the safe zone to a nearby hospital. He recovered peacefully while many hunters talked about the man who defeated a B-class worm with a gardening hoe. 

Freyr awakened, but what kind of Hunter was he? Why was his weapon a gardening hoe? 

***** 

When Freyr fainted, his consciousness teleported to a vast space. The land was fertile and there were buildings scattered nearby. There was a barn, a large coop, and two large sheds. Behind him, there was a two-story farmhouse. The land was riddled with weeds, rocks, and trees. 

This reminded him of a classic farming sim game that people still played, but this time, he wasn’t called to the farm by his grandfather who passed away and handed him the land in a will. Actually, his grandparents had died years ago and his parents lived in a different safe zone from him. 

Was this a dream?  

"Where am I?" Freyr mumbled to himself but he didn't get an answer. 

When he looked down, a video game screen popped up in front of him. This signified he was an Awakened, but his screen looked different than what others described. 

The first tab had his rank and stats, while the second tab had his abilities and skills. The third common tab was the inventory tab which held a specific amount of items. His inventory didn't seem to have a limit. 

The next set of tabs were different. 

There was a maps tab, where he could see a large piece of land with four different plots. There was even a beach, a forest, a mine, and an empty piece of land. Clicking on the empty on the map, it told him it was a place for tamed monsters. 

Next, there was a party tab, where he could see the stats and equipment of everyone in his party. There were 11 empty slots, showing that he could have a maximum of 11 people on his team. 

Below that, there was a tab for his tamed monsters. He could only have four of them with him at a given time. This does not affect the 11 party members. 

Next, he could see the status of all the animals living on the farm. He could see if they were happy or unhappy, if they had eaten, or if they were sick. It also had their names and personalities listed.

Lastly, he saw a skill tree. There were many sections to the large skill tree, like farming, magic, combat, mining, foraging, cooking, and finally fishing. Unlocking a leaf or a branch every ten levels would give a bonus ability that would help him in that skill. 

He would need to take the time to explore each tab... 

Freyr looked around a bit confused. This was not heaven but he felt like he was there. 

He looked back at the house that had a stone fence surrounding it. At the entrance, to the left there was a large wooden chest. And next to the chest was a bulletin board that was nailed to the stone wall. To the right of the entrance, there was a mailbox. Above the mailbox, there was an icon indicating that there was something inside of it. 

Should he go check out what's in the mailbox?