It was a dark chilly night.
The moon could be seen hanging above the night sky with countless twinkling stars covered in dense dark clouds and beneath that, sounds of hurried footsteps rang around the area covered in the shadows of the night.
A young man wearing a tattered dark robe was seen running down the side of an empty broken road.
A loud noise followed as a group of men were chasing him from behind.
Drops of blood could be seen dripping on the ground as he struggled to adapt to the pain of having several cuts on his body.
The wind wailed while enveloping the whole place with the scent of his blood.
'How the hell did they find me?' he asked inwardly.
"Damn it! Someone must have leaked the information." He muttered silently as he continued making his escape from his pursuers.
Huu, huff,
He seemed worn out as he breathe rapidly and heavily as he felt his lungs burning from all the continuous running. He was fatigued, but he endured the pain coming from his entire body as he could not afford to stop until he reached that place.
"There he is, Stop him!"
"Boy, keep running I tell ya!"
'sh*t!'
One of the men chasing behind him suddenly opened his palm and energy started to gather on it. He did a simple movement of his arms and threw it as if he was throwing a ball.
Boom, hyak!..
He spat blood on the ground as he was thrown off to the side when the shock wave reached him. Nonetheless, he got up and continued running despite the accumulating injuries. Though it was unexpected, he was already used to it as he already experienced them happen multiple times.
He ran for another several minutes when he saw it, miniature points of lights started to show themselves in the darkness indicating that he was near his destination.
'damn it! Just a little bit closer, endure it, endure it.' He gritted his teeth as he resolved to make it back alive. When suddenly －
'huh?' A sharp pain echoed on his back as if something exploded.
Kyakk!
Splat… gahh!
He was thrown off and fell as blood splattered on the ground as he was directly hit by that attack from his pursuers, never expecting for them to catch up at this moment due to that moment of carelessness.
It was then, one figure after another appeared in front of him
"Annoying little sh*t!" A burly figure swore as he kicked him, throwing him off.
"Ahh!" The young man screamed.
"Hey! This kid already made us waste a lot of our time, those items takes priority." One of the men who was leading them said and nodded to the other guy beside him.
The other guy that looks Caucasian nodded in response and walked forward, he bend down and grabbed the young man as he asked him a question.
"Boy, where's the items? Tell me where you hid them and we'll let you go after we get what we want."
"Item? What bullsh*t item are you talking about?" The night sky cleared as moonlight shone revealing the young man's deep blue eyes he glared and replied in a menacing manner.
"feigning ignorance eh?" The Caucasian guy landed a punch on his chest as another burst of red fluid came out of his mouth, staining his clothes with blood.
Ahh!.. splat.. gah…
Though it was only once, he felt as though he was hit by a car but knowing the fact that the guy in front of him is someone who has been awakened, it couldn't be far from the truth.
'Bullsh*t! are they even human?!'
'I don't even f*cking have what their looking for!' He screamed inwardly.
"West…cough…cough… of.. prime wall" He lowered his head and gritted his teeth as he endured the pain and gave a weak response.
What he said was total nonsense as he doesn't even possess anything despite going to that place. He only said so to trick them into bringing him into the city as he expects them not to let him go, they would likely bring him along to confirm what he said.
'Damn it! What damned luck I have!'
'What damned fate this is! That damn f*cker, If I get to return I'll find him, beat him up and report him to the authorities.' He swore inwardly.
The one in front of him had an irritated expression as he was speaking something but he couldn't hear them clearly.
His dimmed vision started darkening even further as he slowly lost consciousness due to the amount of injury and pain he was experiencing.
He couldn't help but regret buying that piece of shitty map that was sold to him to have said to lead to that ancient ruin filled with untold opportunities.
A bright flash of light was the last thing he saw before losing consciousness.
***
Earth.
3 days ago.
A young man was sitting in a coffee shop while waiting for someone.
"For sir Raven!" A counter girl with long brown hair and bright eyes who looked to be in her early twenties, called out his name as the ordered coffee was served.
'Ugh'
"Excuse me, miss. What is this? Didn't I ordered a latte?" Raven furrowed his eyebrows as he asked the girl that served him the coffee.
"Eh?" Flustered, she took another look at the order receipt and the coffee.
"Ah! Apologies sir, looks like we made a mistake."
"Yeah, you sure did." Raven replied not bothering about it as the counter girl took the coffee back.
Whilst waiting, a news hologram headline came out that took the attention of everyone.
[Live! Discovery of Another Beast Species Brought Back After Being Found by the Aurora Exploratory Team in Northern Europe Region Area.]
Sounds of chatter rang around the place as people discussed the Aurora Exploratory team's discovery of the new beast species.
"The Aurora exploratory team huh, I wonder what type of beast species have they found." Raven uttered.
The Aurora Exploratory team. They were a group of people consisting of several sequences 8 and 7, namely guardians and ascendents with their leader and vice leader at the sequence 6 seekers respectively.
They were fairly a strong group belonging to Europe's Aurora guild.
"It looks like it's all thanks to that guy, what was his name again? Was it hansel? Hassen?"
"It's Haksen Feronia sir. Here's the iced latte sir, I apologize for the trouble." the counter girl replied with a smile.
"Oh, sure thanks." Raven replied nonchalantly as he took his iced coffee and headed back to his seat.
Ding…
A skinny man with white hair wearing a long-sleeved shirt with black pants entered and started looking for someone. Dark circles can be seen under his nonchalant eyes and smiled as if he found the person he was looking for as he started walking towards him
Raven noticed him as he sat in front of him while drinking his iced latte. Despite how he looks, he was an awakened person.
"Nice to meet you, are you the informant?"
"The name's Adrienne."
"Just call me Raven." Raven replied with a calm gaze after observing him.
"So about the contents of that, are you sure that it's authentic?" Raven asked him while looking into his eyes.
As he believed that those who aren't able to maintain eye contact were only uttering bullsh*t and not the entire truth. This was his way of maintaining vigilance and exercising caution. After all, keeping information and using it to their advantage is common in the 21st century.
"Going straight into business eh? Of course, I guarantee it with my status as a keeper that the information is true." Adrienne spoke confidently showing his status card and smiled as he did not avoid making eye contact with him.
'With this, there's no doubt he'll believe my information, heh. Looks like this one's another easy prey, don't think you can fool me kid. I can see you're a total newbie.' Adrienne muttered inwardly with a smile.
Though he showed his status card, it was a fabricated one. When in fact, he was only a sequence 9 apprentice and not a real sequence 8 keeper. Unfortunately, Raven doesn't know this.
"How much is it?" Raven asked.
"It's not much… for about 12,000 arcs." Adrienne replied with a smile.
Raven furrowed his eyebrows when he heard the amount. 'Not much?! what the f*ck why is this so expensive? Why don't you just go and rob a bank?!' he screamed internally.
He thought for a moment.
"That seems a bit too much, don't you think? For a mere piece with…incomplete information." Raven said. Though it was true, the information may be authentic but it was only partial information and not a complete one as it might turn out to be useless.
"I'll make it a thousand less then, how about it?" Adrienne grinned.
"less a thousand? Forget it, looks like we're done here." Raven muttered as though he was disappointed and stood up to leave.
"10,000 arcs, I'll do you a discount as this is our first-time deal." Adrienne said but raven has already turned his back to leave, ignoring what he said.
"9,000 arcs! Trust me, you wouldn't be able to get this anywhere cheaper than me since this is the only one." When Adrienne said this, Raven took a stop before turning his back.
'only one huh, that's 3,000 arcs less.' he acted as though he was reconsidering it deeply even though Raven was already planning on taking it.
"hmm… Alright, I'll buy it." Raven said after thinking about it for a while.
"Thank you please come again." The counter girl replied with a smile as he left. He completed the deal and left the coffee shop as he started preparing to go to the other side.
He spent a total of 9,000 arcs buying it. He couldn't help but curl his lips upward and began giggling once he was outside. He was able to shove down the price by 3,000 arcs, that was already good enough.
Unfortunately, he wasn't aware that the one who got the most of it was Adrienne. 'Hehehe, I harvested plenty this time, who knew the information I bought for 2,500 arcs was sold for 3 times more than the initial price same with the other guys.' he muttered with a sneer.
Raven started preparing the next day before coming to the other side.
46 years ago.
A sudden crack appeared in the various parts of the world. Many were flabbergasted at this strange global phenomenon that made scientists hypothesize that it may be a result of an astronomical event, distorting space thereby creating visible cracks. But what occurred after completely shattered their common sense.
Earthquake erupted, the world trembled and different species of beasts and horrendous monsters which can only be seen in comics and stories came out of it, causing thousands of thousands of casualties.
It was also then a certain power came to play as game like windows manifested on people who began to awaken.
These people were called [Ascenders].
As the name suggests, Ascenders are people who experienced some sort of rebirth at the energy exposure of the other world, going beyond the normality known to humanity. Those who were exposed at the beginning were the first to experience its wonders.
The world gained the means to fight back against the beasts and reclaim their lost territories. Beasts and monsters were driven back inside the dimensional crack. After a several years, humanity began exploring the unknown world.
Their discovery of this other world completely flipped their understanding of the universe as they began to integrate the newly acquired knowledge into their current technological system.
As the world enters a new era of evolution, a force was needed to keep balance on the world. Various superpowers and influential figures created the World Union to maintain order and facilitate numerous countries' development.
New structures and systems were built as governments were supported by the World Union. Numerous organizations were also built with the sole objective of exploring the new world.
They built multiple strongholds and bases around the dimensional crack to study this phenomenon as well as prevent the first catastrophe that occurred. They named it dimensional gates, allowing them to enter and exit between the two worlds.
The existence of the so-called gates and status windows remained a mystery as to how it came to manifest in reality, including why it only came to those who were awakened.
With this in mind, after strongholds were built as safe zones, they allowed entry to those unawakened people affiliated with organizations who wished to come to the other side, as they hope to unravel the truth.
...
After an entire day of struggling, Raven finally found the ruins based on the information he bought. He thought he would be able to find it easily since it was located on the outskirts of Prime City.
Though he encountered a few beast along, there wasn't any real danger as the dangerous once on the place was already swept by others.
"Looks like this is it." Raven muttered as he looked at the surrounding place. He took out his spear that he brought as he scouted the area. 'I need to stay vigilant, some monsters could be hiding waiting to ambush me.'
Half a day has passed but it seemed to be devoid of monsters, not even a hair of a beast could be seen. 'What the hell?' Raven was greatly puzzled by this but it was a good thing, on the other hand, there could be something in here.
He continued searching around but found nothing. Not even a speck of artifacts or treasure could be seen, which contradicts the information he bought. Thinking about it made his eyebrows furrowed tightly. 'Have I been scammed? But I've researched that guy's identity well before meeting him.' He shook his head in denial.
After exploring the remains of the ruins for hours, he finally reached what seemed to be a great hall and at the end of the hall, a large tablet made of unidentified material could be seen, exuding an ancient aura.
'Finally! This must be lady luck smiling at me hehehe.'
He walked calmly, but cautiously towards the large tablet. As he arrived, he saw characters he had not seen or heard before.
'What language is this?'
As though the tablet heard his thoughts, it began translating the unknown language. Every word echoed in his mind, resonating an ancient and unknown divine might that could shook one's soul.
[The tears of heaven, the sorrow of earth.]
[A hail of myriad fates, flowing endlessly like rivers and lakes.]
[Where shall the wind blows, death follows.]
"Is that it?"
"What ominous words, who the hell wrote and left this sh*t?!"
"Where's my supposed opportunity?!"
"This is crazy."