The world is no longer for them.
Nature, once so gentle, has stood silent,
and throws a cold death blow at the long-suffering humans.

Is this really what we call 'mercy'?
It was more like an ungracious banishment, a merciless rejection.
No persuasion, no compromise.

Those who believed they could survive were given only one thing,
An endless season of annihilation.

Only then did man realize.
We scoffed at nature's fury,
ignored its sharpness, and built up civilizations
by laughing at nature's fury and ignoring its sharpness.

But humans are a species that thrives under adverse conditions.
We've plowed through the darkness of prehistory to B.C. (Before Christ),
A.D. (Anno Domini), the age of empires and gods.
And now we are living in A.E., the 'After End'.

In the year 8 A.E., in the center of ruined Seoul, those still breathing have gathered.
They have organized themselves into four Area (A to D) with the last embers of life,
and rebuilt the shattered order in their own way.

But it was not a triumph of the living,
but a long struggle in the face of death.

Clinging to its master's back, parasitizing his body,
clinging to the edge of existence, forgetting how to fade away.

---

2030 A.D. ㅡ Mostro

In northern Italy, in a once-affluent village, on a vineyard of land, a sentence was written that heralded the end of humanity.

“We'll call this Mostro.”

A single word from biologist Riccardi's fingertips sealed the fate of the human species.
It was a plant, but at the same time it was not a plant. It moved, it grew, and it attacked only humans. It harmed no animals, no insects, no microorganisms. It only hunted humans.
Dr. Riccardi took note. It wasn't just a research report, it was a warning.

“This creature is no mere mutant. It is a hunter created by nature to cull the human race.”

However, his work was expunged from all records five years later. Officially, it was announced that the study had been abandoned, but some scientists believed that it was not a simple abandonment of the experiment, but censorship by intentional intervention. But no one was able to pursue the mystery to the end. And the world forgot about his work.
A decade later, Mostro was no longer a word in a paper, but a scourge facing humanity itself.

---

2040 A.D. ㅡ Wall

Around that time, huge walls began to be built inexplicably around the capitals of countries. Officially, they were being built to “strengthen national security. But no one clearly explained what these giant walls were meant to defend against.
But the powers that be knew: the world would soon be divided into “insiders” and “outsiders.
Capital was pouring in. Politicians and the military, corporations and the underground. Vast amounts of black money flowed in, and even before the Wall was completed, a new order was being forged within it.
The wall was built, but it took ten years to complete, and in those ten years, the world sank deeper and deeper into the abyss.

---

2049 A.D. ㅡ The end of humanity

That year, red rain fell from blue skies. Across the globe, strange weather, plagues, and unidentified creatures were reported.
The population of Mostros has grown exponentially. They are no longer just plants, but have begun to mutate into creatures with hunting instincts.
Cities fell. Human civilization was reduced to screaming ruins. But most frightening of all, Mostro's enmity was directed only at “humans.”
In this vast ecosystem, only one species was being hunted, and it was a clear case of 'cleanup'.

Governments were supposed to be panicking, but instead they were erecting pre-made barriers and sorting out who would survive and who would be left behind.
 
And then, the world went silent.

---

1 A.E. — The world behind the walls

The space inside the barrier was divided into four zones.

Area A

It was the domain of the foolish, living in luxury as they had before the end of the world, believing that money could buy their way out of the apocalypse.

Area B

Military zones. A place for troops to meet the dangers outside the Wall, secure resources, and maintain order. The Wall protected them, but they were also the Wall's blade.

Area C

A place where the survivors eke out a living. Only those with the necessary skills and labor were allowed to remain within the walls. It was the price of survival.

Area D

A place of the forsaken. But they struggled to survive, and eventually, in 8 AE, they rebelled.

---

8 A.E. — Rebellion in Area D

An explosion rang out. The castaways waited no longer. Better to be shot and killed within the walls than to be hunted by Mostro.
However, the rebellion was crushed in a matter of days. The military was relentless, and Area A and B were resolute.

“Area D is no longer a protected area.”

The few survivors were forcibly moved to Area B. Not to be protected, but to be monitored.
Perhaps, all that was left for them was a path that would lead to their destruction, not by the world, but by man.