Reigns stared at the white ceiling in confusion, wondering how he had even ended up here.

Home?

Shouldn’t he be in his apartment?

Then how the hell did he come out of a pod?

Countless questions echoed through his mind.

Just then, the door slowly opened, and his math teacher, or rather Miss Helen, walked inside alongside a nurse who immediately began checking his condition.

"Heartbeat normal!"

"Blood pressure normal!"

"Mind Status: Unchecked!"

Reigns frowned slightly and looked at the nurse as she examined the screen besides his bed.

"What does ’Mind Status: Unchecked’ mean?"

Helen crossed her arms and shrugged, a deep scowl forming on her face.

"It means a certain idiot entered the Zones without using a pod."

Reigns blinked in confusion.

"Do we need a pod?"

"Of course you need one, you goddamn idiot. Just what the hell were you thinking? No, what the hell were you even studying in class?"

Reigns lowered his brows and quietly decided to ignore the insult.

Moreover, he was a bit surprised by her.

In his previous life, she had been his English teacher, yet here she was a Tier 4 warrior.

[Lv 135.]

Seeing Reigns zoning out, Helen raised a hand in frustration as if she wanted to hit him, but stopped herself midway and squeezed her eyes shut.

"You were lucky that your parents found out and brought you here right away."

Reigns slowly looked up at Helen sneakily before asking, "What would have happened if they didn’t?"

"Nothing much. You would have just starved, and your bodily functions would’ve gradually shut down. In severe cases, you might’ve just died."

"Now stop asking these stupid questions."

Reigns rubbed his cheek with an embarrassed expression.

He genuinely knew nothing about pods.

He had simply thought he would be teleported directly, but apparently that wasn’t how it worked at all.

"Then can I ask something else...? What was Mat-Sir Mathew doing outside my pod?"

Helen frowned, sending an ominous shiver down Reign’s spine.

Thankfully, it disappeared the next moment.

"He was guarding you. Apparently, your parents paid and made a huge fuss about watching over you."

"Guess what...? You were lucky he was the one guarding you. It wasn’t because of the money. He just owed your parents a favor."

Reigns scratched his head. "Is he that awesome?"

Helen’s expression immediately fell upon hearing this.

"Tell me you’re joking?"

Reigns started to sweat, trying to think of an answer.

"Ahh... forget it." Helen simply shrugged her shoulder.

"What can I expect from a brat spoiled by that crazy Veydrin? Spending his time chasing chicks instead of learning some real-world knowledge."

’You didn’t have to roast me that hard.’

"If you are talking about Sir Mathew being Tier 9, then that’s not particularly extraordinary. After all, Tier 9 aren’t common, but they’re not exactly rare either. However, if you’re talking about a Tier 9 slaying a Tier 10 or above, then yes..."

She paused briefly.

"That’s awesome. No, he’s more than just awesome."

"And more importantly, he’s one of the few people who carry a title."

Reign’s eyes twitched.

’Tier 9...’

’That should be level 400.’

’Holy shit...’

’And on top of that... a title...’

A title granted by the System only in special circumstances to those it deemed worthy.

"What’s his title?’

"Hawk of the Night!"

’...’

’It sounds so ominous.’

He was getting deja vu. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

The people who taught Maths were always a different breed, no matter where you went.

After finishing the checkup, the nurse quietly walked out of the room, leaving the two of them alone.

Helen remained seated, her expression making it clear that she had something important to discuss.

"Now for the important matter," she muttered as she pulled over a chair and sat before him.

"I want to know about the zone. Which zone did you enter?"

"It was a Yellow Zone. It wasn’t too bad, I guess... until that goddamned dungeon."

Reigns gritted his teeth as memories of the experience resurfaced.

"Apparently, we traveled through the dungeon until we reached the final floor, only to discover there wasn’t any boss monster there. By then, a lot of people had already given up and started living as tribals, offering sacrifices to a broken tree."

"My God, can you believe it? They were worshipping a broken tree, for God’s sake. The hell with that stupidity. I laughed so hard."

Reigns shook his head with a small chuckle.

But the smile on his face slowly faded.

"God... I laughed at them so much... until I ended up becoming a victim of that hideous thing inside myself."

"Apparently we would have ended up the same way if I didn’t have plant-farming skills that let me communicate with plants. They told me about the monster hiding deep inside that damned trunk."

"Hahaha... can you believe it? Out of all the people, I was the one who had the skill to break through like some god-sent hero..."

"..."

Noticing the sudden silence in the room, Reigns slowly looked up and saw Miss Helen’s face had turned pale and distorted.

"Huh? Miss Helen? What’s wrong? Did I say something wrong or stupid?"

Helen slowly opened her lips with slight hesitation.

"No... but did you say the name of the dungeon?"

"Oh. It’s the Zone of Redact."

The moment she heard that name, Helen abruptly stood up from her seat and stared at Reigns with wide, horror-filled eyes.

"So you came from that place."

Her voice trembled slightly.

"Why didn’t you just say that damned name from the beginning?"

’Now what the hell is up with this reaction?’

_____

It was only a few days later that Reigns learned the full truth.

And it was nothing short of shocking.

[Zone of Redact.]

[A treacherous zone responsible for claiming countless lives. A zone that had remained uncleared for the last ten years, leading to the death and disappearances of numerous young awakeners.]

[Finally, the Unconquered has been Conquered.]

[And apparently it was the Ace of the Prestigious Skyfall High Academy, Nyxara Val Veydrin, who cleared the Zone alongside Barbros. Both were below Lv20, yet they managed to slay a demon above Lv20.]

[...]

There was even more bullshit after that as the anchor kept spewing one ridiculous thing after another.

So they had become a nationwide hot sensation after clearing the zone.

But there was one problem.

A very small one at that.

"Where the hell is my name?"

"The hell???"

"I was the damned one who played a crucial role in this! Without me, all of you would have been trapped there, selling your souls to that damned abomination, so..."

He pointed at the screen.

"Where the heck is my name?"

The more Reigns thought about it, the more pissed off he became.

Credit...

He wanted some damned credit.

He had no desire to remain anonymous and play some hidden hero lurking in the shadows.

"ARGHHHH!"

Reigns scratched his hair in frustration, but suddenly another piece of news appeared on the screen.

[Zone of Redact. According to rough surveys, a total of 1,400 people were transferred into the zone, including the victims who had gone missing in previous years; nearly 10,000 people had become connected to the Zone of Redact.]

[But in the end, only 700 managed to return alive.]

[Out of the ten zones transferred this year, eight were Green Zones, one was a Yellow Zone, and the last was a Red Zone. However, the casualty rate suffered inside the Yellow Zone far surpassed even the brutality of the Red Zone.]

[According to official reports, nearly 85% of the awakeners who entered the Red Zone managed to return alive. In comparison, only around 50% survived the horrors within the Yellow Zone of Redact.]

[Experts believe the massive death toll was caused by the greed of awakeners who entered the hidden dungeon located within the zone. Many continued descending deeper despite repeated warnings and numerous disappearances.]

[The Zone of Redact has now officially been labeled as one of the deadliest Yellow Zones recorded in the last decade.]

[Recovered survivors described the dungeon as a place filled with madness, sacrifices, starvation, and an unknown abomination lurking deep within the broken tree.]

[Authorities have announced stricter regulations regarding dungeon exploration after the shocking number of casualties sparked public outrage across multiple cities.]

[The parents and families of many missing awakeners have now demanded a complete investigation into why the Zone of Redact remained active for nearly ten years despite repeated disappearances.]

The moment Reigns heard this, his heart tightened with worry.