It was pitch black. There must be an absolute absence of light to see nothing with his improved vision.

Kade summoned his [Soulrend], not just for protection, but also to act as a feeling stick. He poked around and found that there was quite a bit of space around him.

The most concerning thing was the lack of Eliza’s presence.

The interface interrupted his explorations.

You have entered the Class D Rift Zone #222,222.

Objectives:

Destroy the Pillars of Stability (0/2)

Survive for 7 days

That’s different.

The objectives no longer specified the number of monsters he had to kill. Any killings would be a side effect of having to complete the objectives.

The interface unexpectedly appeared again.

Interface linked to the party member. You may now send messages by speaking and track each other’s location.

Kade pulled up Eliza’s location after skimming the interface. An arrow pointed to his right—similar to when he navigated to Rift Zones on Earth—and the number below stunned him.

Eliza Brooks is 3,219 miles away.

She might as well be a world away. It spoke to how vast this Rift Zone was.

Kade was about to send her a message when he heard a slight scratching sound behind him. He twisted before narrowing his eyes. Not that it helped him to see anything.

The scratching didn’t get closer, but it was continuous. He pointed his [Soulrend] at the sound. There was a simple solution that could fix whatever was making the sound and the surrounding darkness.

Message from party member incoming. The interface will display the identity of the sender before showing the message.

Eliza: So much for entering this Rift Zone as a party. A distance similar to the width of our country has separated us. What are your objectives? Mine are to survive for seven days and destroy something called the Pillars of Stability.

After reading the message, Kade dismissed the interface. He would reply after he dealt with whatever was making the noise.

He thrust his [Soulrend] forward and activated [Inferno Burst].

Flames roared to life, surging and twisting as Kade guided them with his [Soulrend], honing in on the scratching sound. The violent flames didn’t bother him—until a thunderous explosion shattered his expectations.

Sunlight crashed through the chaos, catching Kade off guard and making him flinch.

He glimpsed a burning body falling, turning into white powder just before it was out of his sight. The interface didn’t show what he killed. It must have had too low of an [Arcana Level] to matter.

Kade looked out of the hole in shock and ignored the raging fire around him. He stepped closer to the exit and looked down.

Then he looked up.

How did I end up in a tree?

He felt bad that he had set an innocent tree on fire, which was a case of hyper-bad luck for the poor tree.

Kade jumped down and landed on the ground with a soft grunt. He was tiring of forests. The first Rift Zone was mainly that, and Earth had turned into one giant continuous rainforest. Now, he could see this Rift Zone as another forest nobody asked for.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

At least it’s not a frozen hell.

“I have the same objectives as you. I’m guessing we should just go about our own business, then?”

Message sent.

Kade could see that confirmation become very annoying. “System, do you send everything I say as a message to Eliza?”

No. Only those that are meant to be a message are sent as such. If you have multiple members in the party, specify to whom you want to send a message. With a single member such as now, it is trivial.

Then, the confirmation was utterly unnecessary. “Don’t show me the confirmation in the future. Unless the recipient somehow didn’t receive it.”

He added the last part as an afterthought, but it might be useful in the future.

Customization accepted.

Eliza still hadn’t sent a reply, but he wasn’t concerned. She could be in the middle of a tense situation like he had just been.

Kade looked around and narrowed his eyes at what was behind him. He walked closer, and his eyebrows nearly disappeared into his forehead.

This was different.

Although the forest might have disappointed him, this gave him hope the Rift Zone had the potential to be interesting.

He stood atop a cliff that dropped straight down into the water below. He wasn’t sure if he was looking at an ocean or a sea, but it extended as far as his eyes could see, so he assumed it was the former.

It didn’t take Kade long before he realized something strange.

The water was still.

There was no movement whatsoever on its surface. Not even the smallest of ripples.

It made the ocean look highly unnatural. As if it was… dead.

Eliza: We have no other choice. Let’s split the pillars of stability between us. One for each. And watch out for these trees. They are hollowed out and the vines pull you in. The bats inside were adorable, though. Too bad I had to get rid of them.

Kade blinked as he read the message before turning back to the trees. He couldn’t see anything that resembled vines on them. Plus, he found himself inside a tree, but didn’t see any bats.

… Maybe I killed them by accident with [Inferno Burst].

He wasn’t sure if he trusted Eliza’s tastes in what was cute. Whatever it was, it looked like it was only on her side of the Rift Zone.

“Understood. I found myself on a cliff that drops to an ocean surrounding this land. I’ll move further inland and let you know if something changes.”

Kade did precisely that and moved back into the forest, intending to see if anything was interesting further into this Rift Zone. He had passed the still-burning tree when he got a reply.

Eliza: I’m jealous.

He expected something more to follow, but it seemed like that was all she intended to tell him.

Kade chuckled as he put his full attention on the forest surrounding him. This forest wasn’t as sterile and uniform as the Class F Rift Zone. In fact, it was as natural as it could be.

It brought up a question he had somehow never thought of till now.

“System, how are these Rift Zones formed?”

Creating some Rift Zones of the lowest class as a training ground for new planets like yours is common. Most, however, are natural worlds that have fallen into decay. It is too late to save them, so they are quarantined and set aside as Rift Zones.

Kade had a frown as he thought over the implications. “The city that I found in the last Rift Zone… you told me that monsters could build them. Are natives of a world in decay classified as monsters?”

Yes. Those still living in the world after we quarantine it are lost. They will have already taken in the rot.

He froze the first word.

Kade had imagined it happening to Earth. Humans innocently living their lives before some random maniac appears in the middle of a city and starts a massacre.

However, he felt much better after reading the rest of the message. It brought up one more question.

“What’s this rot? Is there a chance for me to get infected since I’m close to these monsters?” Kade couldn’t deny that he felt nervous about the answer. He wasn’t keen on having to face more experienced… “Wait, what do you call people like me? The ones who hunt these monsters and corrupted lifeforms.”

The rot is a cosmic force that corrupts worlds within the universe. You are immune to the infection. It starts with a planet, not an individual. With planet Earth brought into our protection, it is immune from the rot. As for what you are called, the closest word is Cleaner.

Kade felt a little better knowing about the immunity. As for ‘Cleaner,’ he would pretend like he never heard that. He thought it was a stupid term for what he did.

However, his mood sank when he recalled what he had witnessed on the day Earth was welcomed into the larger universe.

Entire galaxies fell to this cosmic force. Earth might be safe from the rot, but that didn’t mean it was safe from destruction.

He had been merrily killing his way through the Rift Zones until now. He still didn’t think that was the wrong move, but now, he had a real motivation driving him.

Kade would pull humanity out of this initial testing alive and well, single-handedly, if he had to. Still, he preferred to be the muscle and leave the thinking to people like Anita Shah.

He shuddered slightly as he recalled her tactics.

Yeah… maybe I should leave the planning to ruthless monsters like Anita.

Kade narrowed his eyes when he saw the end of the forest. His face dropped as he slowly approached and saw what lay ahead.

“Fucking. Grassland,” Kade said through gritted teeth. His hopes for the Rift Zone fell immediately to all-time lows.

So far, this was just an upgraded version of the Class F Rift Zone.