The escape plan worked out just fine, it was quite dangerous, but it doesn't matter now, everything was fine now. I left from the sewer they came from and disappeared in front of their faces, incluiding the forcr that was takig care of perimeter, because they didn't know the janitor's routine. When the police force noticed I was disguised, I had already changed my appearance back to normal and I disappeared inside the crowd.
When I entered the city streets, among the people walking around, an enormous amount of data moving back and forth, from every single side was noticed by Darwin, and even me, actually. His database would be even larger than before now. "Darwin, what is this monstruous flow of data? I had never seen something like that before." It was, of course, common to see data moving from place to place, but this was absurd, my head ached a bit, it would take a while for me to get used to this. "Teleportation, sir. It is not a power, apparently a company, along with some others that made something similar, produced an way totransport peoples and things in almost an instant. It is quite expensive, so other types of transport are still fairly used." Teleportation? My fastest transportation Skill didn't even hold a candle to it, and it is a fairly destructive power, so it makes my job harder.
"Did you find something interesting between thar mess for me, Darwin?" I said while walking the city's streets that I found myself in, it had changed a lot since the last time I saw it, which makes me somewhat sad. I'm a mercenary and a machined man, but I always appreciated nature, because it was nature itself that gave me my hunting capacity, and now, I couldn't even see the green of trees anymore.They dacimated an amazing forest just to make sewer system. "You are almost a bloody and cruel dictator in the people's eyes, at least it was how your name was spread, even though your face is unknown. Historical documents represents you as bloodthirsty and revoluctionary, killing innocent people in the name of your movement."
Me? A revoluctionary? I laughed while walking, with my hands inside my overcoat's pocket. The thing I hate the most is politics, I would never create a movement to defend ideals, I fought because I was paid to do so. If the other side paid me more, I would've foight for them. "Ridiculous. Found something else?" Obviously, that wasn't the only thing Darwin found out. "The Anti-Technological Movement's leader is still alive. It seems like he just created all that ideology so he could take over the power, and, not only that, he created an immortal body. His consciousness manages the areas he dominated until today." ... That's insane. I stopped for a bit, frowing and slowly looking around me. Indeed... I had forgotten they won against me... And everything is just too techonlogical for them. They could've lost control of the cities after some years, but for the society to progress this much in some hundred of years? It would be absurd.
"Motherfucker. He forged history so no one doubts him... He won cheating, he did use technology... But how? I didn't even notice a drop of mana being used, and even if he found people with the natural talent of perfectly using their Skills without needing to synthesize mana using a core, they were just too much, and it was impossible for them to beat us because we used a lot of amplifications." I thought to myself about it, sitting on a random bench in the street, looking people and lizard walki- Wait... Lizard? When did... WAIT! THE LIZARD IS USING A SUIT AND WALKING ON BOTH LEGS! "Darwin... What the fuck is that?" I said putting my hands in my had, making pressure and rubbing my eyes and cheeks... It was indeed real... And, looking precisely among everyone, it wasn't only lizards
"Apparently, sir, through Dimensional Rifts, humans were able to establish peaceful relationships with other realities and world, so there are travels between them. Although, random Dimension Rifts still appear around, and hunting is still a viable job." Friendly relationships...? What 1500 years don't do to a society, right? If you are wondering what Dimensional Rifts are, they originated in my world along with the manifestation of mana. Inside them, there are areas to be explored and monster to be killed, with and without powers, intelligent and irrational. It was much more lucrative when they started to show up, but I wasn't alive then to tell you the details of the stories.
But, I know one thing or another. Originally people with talents manifested powers, being different from the rest, and used their poeers to conrain the Rifts that they were able to defeat with their powers, but, over time, the supply of hunters was lower than the demand, so they had to find a new way to defeat the Portals, and the method that they found was technology. With prostheses and study about the Spiritual Plane, where mana manifested from, scientists and companies found a way to amplify the powers of those who had the talent to manipulate it, and, after sometime, the mana core was created, making it so common people can be able to manipulate it as well. And it doesn't end there, they actually found that, in each single living person, in their Individual Essence, humans were born being able to with powers, even if inactive, being hereditary and different for every single person, and they can mutate, just like genes. With this, technology only improved, better prostheses, Skill amplifications, AI's, etc. The Rifts became obsoletes and hunting became just another common job, but it is lucrative if well done.
Now, you see, I had never imagined that we would be able to make connections between two different realities and mantain peaceful relationships with them. Not only that, but the human-made Rifts don't contamine the world nor invade our reality if the portals aren't destroyed.
I got up, leaving the bench and raising my head, looking at the sky. A new world, a new age, a new day. It is now time for me to adapt mysrlf. But, before that, I guess I need some money, and I imagine I don't have something that is worth a reasonable amount of money... Well... I was talking about Rifts wasn't I?... Yeah, why not? Participate in a public Raid? I can use this opportunity to find people to join my group, it is always easier with more people. An S or SS Portal should do the deal for now, if I decided to do a contract, I would end up dead with my head rolling on the ground, I have become outdated. "Darwin, find a closeby me S or SS raid." I told him, while walking towards a random narrow alley. I need temporary housing, and nothing worse than the streets to use as your home. "Yes, sir. There is a Rift scheduled to appear on the day after tomorrow. The company that owns thus city is organizing it already. The payment isn't much, and it is basically finders-keepers, although 30% of what you gain selling it will go to the company. How should I subscribe you as? Using your full real name isn't a good option." Right... I expected something like that, and it could've been worse. Only the payment should be able to do for a bit of housing and repairs. "Subscribe only my surname, they don't care about documents and if they are real or not. If we do the job, they are already satisfied. I'll be Mwetter for the time-being"