TV-Series
Description
Hajime Nagumo started as an ordinary Japanese high school student—black-haired, brown-eyed, and slim, typically clad in his school uniform. Academically average with little interest in sports, he often slept in class due to late nights devoted to video games, manga, and assisting his game designer father and media creator mother. Bullied by classmates like Daisuke Hiyama for his otaku passions and closeness to class idol Kaori Shirasaki, Hajime possessed a kind, gentle, and humble spirit. He displayed quiet bravery, calming peers during a Behemoth attack in Tortus when the designated hero, Kouki Amanogawa, froze.
Transported to Tortus with his class, Hajime received the Synergist job, enabling matter transmutation but offering negligible combat power. His low stats and perceived uselessness deepened his isolation. During a dungeon expedition, Hiyama betrayed him, blasting him into the abyss of the Great Orcus Labyrinth with a fireball. There, a Claw Bear severed his left arm. Facing starvation, he consumed monster meat, triggering violent cellular degeneration. He counteracted this by drinking Ambrosia from a Divinity Stone, a fluid that repeatedly destroyed and regenerated his muscles and bones. This agonizing process altered his physiology: his hair turned white, his eyes crimson red, crimson veins snaked across his skin, and his blood cells became purple and spiked. He grew taller and more muscular, emerging as a human-monster hybrid. Later, battling a Hydra on the labyrinth's 100th floor, he lost his right eye.
Survival in the abyss demanded ruthless pragmatism. Hajime forged firearms like the pistol Donner and railgun Schlagen using transmutation, and consumed monsters to absorb their abilities. His near-death experiences and betrayal extinguished his former kindness, replacing it with cold indifference, misanthropy, and a readiness to kill anyone hindering his return to Japan—even former classmates. He developed a habit of smiling during peril, earning the moniker "Predator." His core philosophy became self-reliance; he dismissed appeals to save Tortus, viewing its conflicts as irrelevant. He prioritized minimizing risks, refusing to share his weaponry with factions potentially manipulated by the god Ehit, and threatened lethal force against those attempting to steal his artifacts.
Hajime's relationships anchored his residual humanity. He freed Yue, a vampire princess imprisoned in Orcus, and their shared bond of betrayal forged unbreakable loyalty. Yue's influence prevented his total moral collapse. He later integrated companions like the rabbit-eared Shea Haulia and the dragon-woman Tio Klarus, protecting them ferociously. Though indifferent to most classmates, he cooperated strategically with Shizuku Yaegashi and warned teacher Aiko Hatayama about Ehit's manipulations to avoid future conflict. His brutality emerged against threats: he tortured and executed Hiyama for endangering Kaori, and massacred Ehit's apostles and loyalists indiscriminately. He dismantled Kouki's naive idealism, citing its role in enabling betrayals, and emphasized resolve over innate power as the key to overcoming adversity.
Hajime's journey gradually restored fragments of his former self. While retaining pragmatic violence, he aided vulnerable groups like the Haulia tribe—training them for independence rather than offering permanent protection. His comrades leveraged his capabilities for altruistic acts, though he maintained a detached demeanor. After killing Ehit, he used metamorphosis magic to revert his hair and eyes to their original colors and disguised his prosthetic left arm and Demon Eye right eye to appear organic. His return to Japan with his allies culminated his odyssey, his hardened worldview now tempered by loyalty to those he trusted.
Transported to Tortus with his class, Hajime received the Synergist job, enabling matter transmutation but offering negligible combat power. His low stats and perceived uselessness deepened his isolation. During a dungeon expedition, Hiyama betrayed him, blasting him into the abyss of the Great Orcus Labyrinth with a fireball. There, a Claw Bear severed his left arm. Facing starvation, he consumed monster meat, triggering violent cellular degeneration. He counteracted this by drinking Ambrosia from a Divinity Stone, a fluid that repeatedly destroyed and regenerated his muscles and bones. This agonizing process altered his physiology: his hair turned white, his eyes crimson red, crimson veins snaked across his skin, and his blood cells became purple and spiked. He grew taller and more muscular, emerging as a human-monster hybrid. Later, battling a Hydra on the labyrinth's 100th floor, he lost his right eye.
Survival in the abyss demanded ruthless pragmatism. Hajime forged firearms like the pistol Donner and railgun Schlagen using transmutation, and consumed monsters to absorb their abilities. His near-death experiences and betrayal extinguished his former kindness, replacing it with cold indifference, misanthropy, and a readiness to kill anyone hindering his return to Japan—even former classmates. He developed a habit of smiling during peril, earning the moniker "Predator." His core philosophy became self-reliance; he dismissed appeals to save Tortus, viewing its conflicts as irrelevant. He prioritized minimizing risks, refusing to share his weaponry with factions potentially manipulated by the god Ehit, and threatened lethal force against those attempting to steal his artifacts.
Hajime's relationships anchored his residual humanity. He freed Yue, a vampire princess imprisoned in Orcus, and their shared bond of betrayal forged unbreakable loyalty. Yue's influence prevented his total moral collapse. He later integrated companions like the rabbit-eared Shea Haulia and the dragon-woman Tio Klarus, protecting them ferociously. Though indifferent to most classmates, he cooperated strategically with Shizuku Yaegashi and warned teacher Aiko Hatayama about Ehit's manipulations to avoid future conflict. His brutality emerged against threats: he tortured and executed Hiyama for endangering Kaori, and massacred Ehit's apostles and loyalists indiscriminately. He dismantled Kouki's naive idealism, citing its role in enabling betrayals, and emphasized resolve over innate power as the key to overcoming adversity.
Hajime's journey gradually restored fragments of his former self. While retaining pragmatic violence, he aided vulnerable groups like the Haulia tribe—training them for independence rather than offering permanent protection. His comrades leveraged his capabilities for altruistic acts, though he maintained a detached demeanor. After killing Ehit, he used metamorphosis magic to revert his hair and eyes to their original colors and disguised his prosthetic left arm and Demon Eye right eye to appear organic. His return to Japan with his allies culminated his odyssey, his hardened worldview now tempered by loyalty to those he trusted.