As soon as he left his house, Axel checked his phone to confirm where he should go.

According to Mark's message, he had to go to the city's outskirts. He walked for a few minutes to the bus stop, so he didn't have to walk all the way there.

After getting on the bus, it didn't take him more than ten minutes to arrive at his destination.

Mark had given him the direction of where he should go, which was to a nearby park to the bus stop, so once he got off of the bus, he walked toward there.

He entered the park and saw a small group of people gathered around a tree discussing something. He decided to approach them as they were the only group in the park at the moment.

"Are you Axel? If not, don't approach us more if you don't want us to rely on violence," asked a man as soon as he saw him.

The man was around thirty years old. He was bald and very muscular. While the man was talking, the other people stayed still while looking at Axel.

"Yeah, it's me. I guess you are the group that is going to clean up the rift, right?" Axel asked.

"Yeah, it is us. Sorry for the threat, but you should understand that we can't let anyone get too close to the rift, or they could sneakily try to clean it without our consent. By the way, I'm George."

"Don't you worry, it is fine," Axel said. "And where is the rift?"

"The rift is next to the tree. If you concentrate on your surroundings, you will notice it. Try it if you want," George explained.

Following his words, Axel closed his eyes and did his best to focus on the things around him. In a few seconds, he felt the worlds of the people around him, and next to them, a large chunk of energy.

That thing felt like how a world did, but at the same time, it was different. The main difference between them would be that while Axel could connect his world to another at any moment if he was close enough, he felt that he couldn't do the same with the rift even if he tried.

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"If you feel like it is rejecting you, it is because it is not open yet. You are going to have to wait at least fifteen minutes before you can challenge it."

While they were talking, one of the people that were waiting next to the tree approached Axel. He was around his age. He had black eyes and hair, and a smile appeared on his face as soon as he got in front of Axel.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Jacob. It seems like we are going to cooperate to clear this rift, so it would be good for us to get to know each other."

"I'm Axel. Nice to meet you. Shouldn't the other people come too if we are going to talk about clearing the rift?"

"They are customers. Unless they say otherwise, customers tend to do whatever they feel like during the rifts, so it is better to create the plan without having them into account." Jacob explained

"And George doesn't take part in the rift?" Axel asked.

"I'm almost a rank 4 worldbuilder, kid. I'm here to ensure that you clear the rift, but I hope I don't need to help. Any of the creatures of my world would be so strong that the cost of teleporting them to the rift would be greater than any loot that I could get from it."

"Oh, I see. Then it is just you and me." Axel said while laughing.

"Exactly, that's why we should know what the other is capable of." Jacob said." So, what rank are you, and what type of world have you created?"

"I reached rank 1 a few days ago, and my world is a cultivation one," Axel said happily.

"What? Did you reach rank 1 a few days ago?" George said as his face began to redden."Fucking Mark, I have told him a million times that he shouldn't accept newbies' requests to join rifts. I will make sure that he pays me for every single bit of energy that I waste when I have to clear this rift myself."

"Hey, I'm not a newbie. I almost beat Mark's daughter in a battle just after breaking through to rank 1, so I'm not that weak." Axel protested.

"So what? That doesn't prove anything. You may have been lucky that your world counters hers." George said. "A person doesn't become a real worldbuilder until he understands his world and its needs, and with so little time working on it, I bet that you have yet to do it."

"That's not true. I have implemented a lot of add-ons successfully and made their synergy with each other to get their most potential." Axel said upset.

"Oh, really? Tell me. How many of those add-ons were your ideas? How many tutorials did you follow to reach your current rank? Did you install those add-ons because you thought that they were useful for your world, or was it because someone else told you to do so?" George asked.

At that moment, Axel realized that George was right. Until now, he had been following the tips that his friends told him or those that he found on the internet, and even if he made a few changes to his world on his own, they weren't very significant.

Seeing Axel's pensive look, George smiled.

"See, you will never be a good worldbuilder until you know your world as well as the back of your hand..."

Suddenly, George stayed quiet for a few seconds before continuing talking.

"Well, the rift is open. Let's clear it quickly, and after you end, I can continue criticizing your world," he said while he burst into laughter.