Ryan chuckled as he heard Ben grumbling in the back of the van. It was amusing how these two always seemed to find a reason to pick fights with each other, even for the most mundane of reasons.
"The two of you really get along well don't you."
For a moment they were both stunned speechless as they stared blankly at Ryan to the point where Val wasn't even paying attention to the road.
"Uhhh… what's wrong?"
"Listen, love. Please don't make such a bad joke again, you can't lump me in with this buffoon."
"Exactly, don't ever lump me in with this dumbass. No offense."
At this point, Ryan was completely at a loss for words as he stared blankly at these two kindred spirits as they both suddenly turned against him.
He laughed dryly as he scratched the head in confusion. The two only seem to agree on that one thing as they soon went back to their bickering and Ryan just stayed out of it.
For some reason, he felt as though he was the third wheel on this van and couldn't wait for them to pick up some of his other guild members.
They drove a considerable distance to the edge of the city and finally picked up a few more people along the way which helped Ryan to get back on those two's good Grace as they made their way to their rifting sight.
As the white van drove through the occasionally empty road, the sun steadily began to rise as most of the working-class civilians began their daily transition to work.
After driving for about an hour and a half, their van soon came to a halt in front of a large gate and Ryan came down alongside Ben and Val. Three other figures were alighting down from their van as well.
They were the ones Ryan's group had given a ride along the way. Given that they were all members of the same guild and headed in the same direction, it made sense for them to optimize their trip by carpooling.
The moment they had all alighted from the van, they saw more than a hundred people standing around in smaller groups in the open clearing beyond the bar gate. This place was the construction site of a massive building complex.
However, even though it was already the break of dawn, not a single construction worker could be seen there as the site had been temporarily shut down due to the job they were called for.
The reason for that was because this place had been declared a danger zone as early as yesterday. It had been announced in the local news and was currently off-limits to the general public.
Everyone had heard the reason for this and at this point, it was something that was already an almost daily experience for the residents here in Kaiton city, as well as the rest of the world itself.
Ryan and his little group could clearly see the cause of this all the way at the center of the construction site, it was something they must've seen over a thousand times by now, but still couldn't get used to it.
Hovering only inches above the ground was a large semi-transparent tear in the fabric of reality, a rift in space itself.
This massive tear in space was over 20 feet tall and 7 feet wide. It steadily pulsates a faint amount of energy that can only be sensed by special individuals who have developed or awakened special abilities, becoming what could be known as superhumans.
Just as it looked, this tear in the fabric of space was called a Rift. It was the result of a strange phenomenon that had started a little over forty years ago.
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On a day like any other, seven raven black towers came shoting down from the skies in the seven continents of the world without warning. No one, not even the world government had the time had even seen them coming. It was as if they had appeared out of thin air.
These pillar-like towers were imposing as they tore through the skies like lightning, reaching heights that no man-made building could come close to. They were more than 5,000 meters tall and were made of slick black metals or rather, metal like-material that were unknown to mankind, prompting the world government do everything possible to study them.
The arrival of such an unknown variable in the world started an uproar that caused a catastrophic change in the world. It was an incident that had thrown the world into chaos. Bringing humanity to the very brink of extinction as countless rifts open across the entire world.
Unsure of what was happening, the confused citizens began to panic and the result was anarchy at the fear of the unknown.
With the world in chaos and the rifts left unchecked, they slowly matured and within a period of seven days, these riffs would shatter and monsters of varying kinds had escaped into our world.
—It was a massacre.
The various so-called first-world countries began to unleash their nuclear weapons as they tried to save their countries by destroying others, completely disregarding the consequences of their actions.
However, this decision had practically brought about the apocalypse by mankind's hands as these monsters fed off the radiation and mutated to the point where modern weapons did not affect them.
The destruction was on a scale even World War 2 could not fathom. Countries fell and rose in mere weeks and soon, the population of the world was cut cleanly in half and continuously dropped rapidly.
However, hope arose again when abilities began to awaken within certain individuals. Abilities that were very effective against the monsters, especially since they also gained improved physique that allowed them to keep up and survive their attacks.
Most of these selected few used their abilities to save themselves and their loved ones, others for selfish gains while only a few decided to save the world.
With the support that ability users brought to the world, humanity was saved from the brink of extinction. It didn't take long before research was conducted into these riffs and the Seven black towers that remained unaffected, even against those nuclear weapons.
Driven to the brink of extinction, humans fought desperately to survive and soon discovered that these mutated monsters could not or would not go near those seven massive pillars that appeared on every continent.
Thus, humanity relied on the very thing that had brought them harm to survive. In only a few short years, cities arose around the protection of these towers as mankind began to study it for their survival.
However, while the mutated monsters feared the pillars, more would eventually arrive from the rifts and destroy the rest of mankind if nothing was done to stop it.
With an intense desire to survive, mankind quickly discovered that although they could not stop it, these rifts in space could be predicted by studying the seven black towers. They would learn of its approximate location.
These rifts would remain in our world for a maximum of 7 days before they break and unleash a horde of monsters. Within this period of 7 days, they would be able to close the rifts by destroying the source of the spatial energy within it.
The space within these rifts was Essentially just small isolated dimensions that could be within a forest, an underground labyrinth, or even the desert.
However, upon the very first exploration within a rift, it was discovered that modern weapons could not enter these riffs as they would be fried.
The world required the services of the so-called super-powered being to enter these rifts and locate its source before it had the time to break.
With that, came the establishment of a new world government, focused on the development of ability holders that would later be referred to as Rifters. Guilds whose sole focus was closing these rifts at all costs arose on every continent and Rifters began to take center stage as the heroes of this world.
This led to various other discoveries within the rifts. Killing monsters inside a rift dropped various materials that could be considered valuable resources. The most common of these resources were of course monster cores.
These were energy crystals that had rebuilt humanity from the verge of extinction. They were used as the foundation of the new civilization that rose around the black pillars.
Besides these monster cores, countless resources could be plundered from the space beyond the rifts.
Things like runestones that could be used in combination with various monsters parts in forging weapons and armor that are capable of damaging those mutated monsters.
Attributes stones that allow anyone with an ability to increase an aspect of their physique and gain far greater strength than they had initially started with. Energy stones that provide a cleaner and purer supply of power, and many more.
Hence, locating, exploring, and closing rifts became the official jobs for ability holders with government-issued licenses. They could then band together in various guilds for the rights to plunder rifts at their appropriate level.
This activity had earned the ability holders the nickname of Rifters. However, not all Rifts were created equal and as such, not all ability holders were of equal footing.
Rifts contain different types of monsters of similar strength and as such, they come in different grades and need different levels of strength to handle. This led to the Ranking system where Rifters were ranked based on certain criteria which ranged from G to S.
Rifts were also graded based on the combined level of energy that was being leaked from within them. The grading system ranged from 7 to 1, the lower the number, the more dangerous the assigned Rift would be, requiring an adequate party of Rifters to clear.
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Ryan and everyone standing here today were the assigned Rifters for this Grade 6 Rift. Giving as they were a guild of only G and F-ranked Rifters until recently. They would normally only have the right to clear the lowest ranked Grade 7 rifts.
However, something changed and now, they get to try their hands on the stronger Grade 6 Rifts which contained a lot more resources than they were used to. Effectively boosting their allocation profits. Needless to say, everyone here was very excited about this.
"Alright Rifters, let's do this!"