Three months passed.
Ji-hu still lived at the camp, though it wasn't really a camp anymore. Walls had gone up. Guard towers. A gate. People called it a settlement now, one of hundreds that had sprouted across what used to be countryside.
He had a job.
Watcher. He sat in a wooden tower at the perimeter and looked at the horizon. If he saw monsters, he rang a bell. That was it. That was the whole job.
Sometimes he looked higher. At the rift. It was smaller now—or maybe that was just everyone getting used to it. Scientists said it was stable. Not growing. Not shrinking. Just... there.
Ships had tried to reach it. Planes, too. They all stopped working halfway up, instruments dead, engines failing. Pilots who survived said it felt like hitting a wall made of nothing.
The rift was unreachable. Untouchable. Permanent.
Ji-hu looked at it every day. Eventually he stopped seeing it.
---
Every morning, the hunters left.
They gathered at the main gate as the sun came up—men and women who had awakened during the First Minute. Some could summon fire. Some moved faster than eyes could follow. Some had skin that turned hard as stone when monsters struck. They wore proper gear now, supplied by groups that had formed in the months since the Convergence. Guilds, people called them. Organizations built around the awakened.
The hunters walked out into the monster zones and cleared nests and rescued survivors and came back with loot and stories.
Every evening, Ji-hu watched them return.
Some didn't.
---
Hunter: Hey. Watcher.
Ji-hu looked down from his tower. A young man stood below, maybe his age, wearing the patch of a small guild Ji-hu didn't recognize. Armed with a sword that looked expensive.
Hunter: How many monsters you killed up there?
Ji-hu: None.
Hunter: How many you seen?
Ji-hu: A few. From a distance.
The hunter laughed. His friends laughed with him.
Hunter: Must be nice. Sitting safe while real work gets done.
Ji-hu said nothing.
Hunter: What's your name?
Ji-hu: Ji-hu.
Hunter: Well, Ji-hu the Watcher. When you're done playing lookout, the rest of us will be out there dying so you can keep your little tower.
They walked away laughing.
Ji-hu watched them go. Then he looked back at the horizon.
---
That night, he ate alone.
Mess hall was crowded but he'd learned to find corners. People didn't bother you in corners. They forgot you existed. That was better.
A television played on the wall. Same as the camp before, except this one worked most of the time.
"—and in today's monster suppression news, rising star guild Valiant Storm has successfully cleared a Grade 2 nest in the eastern overlap zone. The operation was led by fourteen-year-old prodigy Hana, whose water-based abilities continue to impress—"
Ji-hu's spoon stopped halfway to his mouth.
Hana was on screen.
She looked older. Not much—three months wasn't long—but something in her face had settled. She stood with a group of hunters in matching gear, all of them dirt-streaked and tired but smiling. Behind them, dead goblins piled up like garbage.
Hana wasn't smiling. But she looked steady. Certain. Like someone who knew exactly where she belonged.
"—authorities confirm this is her seventh successful nest clearance since joining Valiant Storm. When asked about her rapid progression, guild representatives cited her First Minute exposure duration as a key factor in her—"
Someone in the mess hall cheered.
Man: That's the girl from our camp! The one who killed all those goblins!
Woman: She's famous now. Valiant Storm took her weeks ago.
Man: Fourteen years old. Can you imagine?
The crowd watched. Talked. Praised.
Ji-hu stared at the screen.
She said she'd come back. She hadn't.
He left his food untouched and walked out.
---
Next morning, he took his post.
The sun rose. The hunters gathered. The gate opened. They marched out to fight and die and come back changed.
Ji-hu sat in his tower and watched.
Hunter: Hey. Watcher.
Same young man. Same smirk.
Hunter: Still alive up there? Good for you. Must be nice, being useless.
Ji-hu looked at him.
Ji-hu: Yeah. Must be nice.
The hunter blinked. Didn't expect an answer. Lost interest and walked away.
Ji-hu turned back to the horizon.
Three months. Three years maybe. However long it took.
He'd be here.
Watching.
---
END CHAPTER 4