The KAMB Command Center had only been operational for twelve hours, yet it was already the most important room in the country. Rows of analysts worked beneath a wall of massive displays, each screen replaying footage collected from the drone units deployed during the simultaneous gate raids.
Five operations. Five gates. Five completely different battlefields.
The recordings ran side by side until one analyst adjusted the synchronization timeline. "All raid footage aligned."
The central screens shifted.
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The first recording showed Aurora Covenant in an abandoned factory district. Concrete floors cracked as burrowing creatures tore upward from beneath the ground. The footage paused the moment the Mandible Crawler Broodlord erupted from the collapsed warehouse.
One analyst pointed to the system window captured by the drone. "Gate classification: Breach Gate." He replayed the swarm behavior. "Continuous monster emergence until core elimination."
"So Breach Gates prioritize numbers," another analyst nodded slowly.
The second screen displayed Regulated Order. The refinery complex was drowned beneath violent storm clouds. Lightning crashed through steel towers while the Stormforged Sentinel descended from the sky.
"Gate classification: Domain Gate." An analyst highlighted the environmental shift. "The boss altered the battlefield itself. Localized weather control."
The third recording shifted to Iron Bastion at a ruined port facility. Massive armored creatures pressed against reinforced defenses as the guild formed an immovable wall of shields. The analysts paused as monsters emerged from massive iron gates embedded in the harbor structure.
"Gate classification: Domain Gate." One analyst frowned. "Different environment from the refinery, but the same classification."
Another analyst nodded. "Domain doesn't refer to terrain. It refers to control of the battlefield."
The fourth screen showed Tempest Choir. Wind Authorities tore through the sky while grotesque creatures twisted across the ground. Their bodies warped unnaturally—extra limbs splitting through bone, skin tearing and reforming.
The footage slowed. "Mutation instability confirmed." The system window appeared: "Gate classification: Corruption Gate."
An analyst leaned closer. "These monsters were still changing mid-combat."
"Unstable biology," another quietly replied.
The fifth recording appeared last: a ruined underground subway station. The guild Crimson Banner advanced through narrow tunnels lined with sealed steel doors. Each chamber opened into another; each corridor held a different enemy group. The analysts paused when the team reached a massive stone door at the end of the structure.
"Gate classification: Trial Gate." One analyst tilted his head. "They had to clear stages to reach the core. Sequential encounters."
Silence settled across the command center. Five raids. Five classifications. Five different combat behaviors.
One analyst finally spoke. "...The system named them. Breach. Domain. Corruption. Trial. But it never explained what those classifications actually mean."
"Yet," another analyst added quietly.
The door at the rear of the room opened. Conversation stopped instantly as Cassian Verity stepped inside. Tall and calm, his eyes moved across the screens with quiet focus. He didn't ask questions; he simply walked toward the central display.
The footage changed, showing the moments after each gate collapsed: the reward distribution windows. Mana crystals forming in the hands of the awakened. Fragments. Catalysts. Unknown materials.
Cassian watched the sequence carefully. "The system is establishing a structure."
The analysts looked toward him as he gestured toward the windows. "Resources. Participation. Incentives." He paused. "It is building an ecosystem."
No one spoke. The room's attention shifted as another analyst turned toward the director's station.
The director leaned forward slowly. "What is your recommendation?"
Cassian answered without hesitation. "Data collection. We do not yet understand the rules." He looked back toward the screens. "Until we do... we observe."
The director nodded once, then issued the order: "All guilds that participated in today's raids will submit full reports. Monster encounters. Gate behavior. System reward distribution. Every detail."
The analysts began transmitting the directive immediately. Across the city, guild headquarters received the same message. The world had just survived its first wave of gates. Now, it was time to understand them.