The first light of dawn broke the darkness, Lim was waiting in front of a door. Nervous as sweats ran down his back. He adjusted his tie. Lim took a deep breath as he knocked on the door.

The door opened.

"Boss, here's your suit," Lim passed over a set of clothes.

The door closed leaving Lim to stand alone.

A minute later, Asran got out of the apartment. The black and white suit was a good fit for the slim Asran.

"Let's go," said Asran.

As the duo left in the mercedes e-class, another apartment door opened.

Sofia stepped outside while yawning. She wore the ID bracelet while contemplating on something.

She rummaged through her pocket taking out a compact mirror. Her reflection was seen and it was a face of another person.

"Atira, files for bankruptcy, in immense debt and have to take care of a sick mother. Fuh, let's not forget the details," she took a deep breath as she prepared for what was about to come.

She rode her scooter as she followed the direction from the GPS.

Sofia was wearing a silicone-based mask that enveloped her entire head. One of the most latest hidden-tech under the police force of Singapore.

Not many knew of its existence but Sofia got a few friends that could pull a few strings.

She owed her a lot for having this mask and treating her for dinner wasn't likely to pay it up.

Following the direction on the map, Sofia arrived at West Coast Pier. She walked around the area before she found a group of people. These people were being herded by suspicious looking people.

"Hey, who are you? Why are you here?"

A bunch of gangster looking people walked towards her. They definitely didn't come with good intention.

If it was up to Sofia, she would have beaten the heck out of them but since she's in disguise, she had to play her part.

"I'm here because of my debt," said Sofia. Her voice was meek and she appeared timid.

These gangsters flinched a bit, all of them knew not to touch Andika's merchandise. After they pointed out the direction, they left.

Sofia took note of their reaction, and she knew she was definitely at the right place.

She joined the group of nervous-looking people after flashing the ID bracelet to the men wearing black suits.

For the time being it was her job to observed everything.

Meanwhile, near the end of the dock. A man stood in front of a portal. The color emitted by this portal was far from the blue and green he saw back at the park, it was in yellowish hue.

The sea breeze went by as his clothes flapping by the wind.

Lim came from behind in a polite manner.

"Boss, the miners and porters are ready," said Lim.

"You're going also?" Asked Asran.

"Where ever you go, I'll follow you boss," Lim was showcasing his loyalty.

"Don't bother, stay here and do something for me," said Asran.

"Yes, boss, whatever your request maybe I'll do my best," said Lim.

"Find a good villa near the ocean side, and buy it for me," Lim was flustered hearing such request. The real estate value in that area was definitely not something Lim could even approach.

Even a million wasn't enough for the cheapest real estate near the ocean side area.

Lim couldn't even hide his expression as he was too shocked by it.

"Don't worry, I'll pay you back," Asran lightly smiled as he patted Lim's shoulder.

"Ye-ye-yes boss," Lim was starting to think whether this was a mistake following a man like him.

Asran waited in front of the portal as people gathered behind him. The number reached up to thirty people and the look of their lifeless faces were enough evidence to see them being torment from the inside.

These people were victim to their own greed. Regret itself was useless as being thrown into a portal was death itself.

Some were coming for their second time and they knew there would certainly be death.

"Oh," Asran smiled as he found something interesting. His spirit sense could see everything.

'This trip is going to be interesting,' thought Asran.

He stepped inside the portal as the rest followed him from the back.

---

The grass plain came to view in the eyes of Asran. It was vast and wide, spanning like an ocean.

Asran's brows knitted together.

'The qi quantity here is far less compared to the previous portal,' Asran thought it would be smooth sailing in his cultivation but reality struck him hard.

'I guess those grades they generalized does have a reason,' he wasn't please yet the qi density here was at least suitable for cultivating compared to back on earth.

The rest came along. The people in black suits, Andika's men were professional in these sort of situations. They were armed with a variety of weapons from SMG to rifles. Yet two of them held daggers that looks ordinary but far from it.

"Come on, step on it," the leader of this expedition, codename Shayu. Broad shoulders, with a stocky build. He had survived countless times into the portal, for a normal man it was definitely something to be proud of.

"Abu go and scout the perimeter," Shayu ordered.

The bald man nodded as he ran like the wind disappearing into the woods.

The rest of those nineteen armed men guarded the nervous people at the center as they made their way across the grass plain.

Shayu walked over to Asran. The only thing he heard about this man from Andika was he's an evol with the job of protecting them. He felt disgust over that fact. He had been a loyal man to Andika and seeing this man was like a slap on the face over his pride.

"We're leaving, under the boss's orders you will be under my command. I don't care if you're an evol or whatever but in this place I'm in charge, got that?" Shayu was asserting his dominance. Andika himself didn't say anything about him being in charge of Asran.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

He couldn't accept the fact of having an evol taking authority over him.

Yet his action only made Asran to chuckle in response.

"You're quite a pretentious man," said Asran.

"What did you just say? You want a beating, you freaking skeleton," an ill-tempered man, Shayu's pride wouldn't let go for being belittled.

"I advise you not to be reckless, I've got a deal with Andika and I don't want things to be messy," said Asran. For once he was polite in his gesture. Who would have thought, he had some reasoning in him.

"You think I'm afraid of you because you're an-" Shayu's words stopped short.

His neck was grabbed by the grip of Asran. He was lifted in the air as if he was a balloon. Shayu's feet struggled in the air trying to reach the ground but alas, the person he's dealing with had a shorter fuse than him.

"Dealing with pest is certainly troublesome," he swung his arm as Shayu was thrown over the air, he fell to the ground as he rolled over as pain wracked his body.

Shayu had never experience such a thing. He was almost close to death yet his stupid pride wouldn't let things go that easy.

"Die you freak," he pulled trigger and his SMG roared as bullets crossed over the plains.

But...

Asran was nowhere in sight.

"Leader Shayu, I heard gunshots, is there a problem," one of the black suit men came running to Shayu's side.

"That bastard evol betray boss Andika, shoot him onsight," Shayu shouted like a mad lion. He wouldn't let things go down that easily.

It didn't matter to him that Asran was helping Andika, all he knew was he needed to protect his status and whatever happened, he could just lie.

Since in his train of thought, whatever happened in the portal stays in the portal.

Meanwhile, Asran was running through the woods adjacent to the grassplain. He was already far away from the prideful Shayu. His sight saw something from afar and it intrigued his interest.

His movement was fast and swift. The trees in the woods couldn't stop his run. Before long he saw the back of his target.

An odd dark green hue.

From the back it was like a bald child running in the forest. But Asran knew such thing wasn't possible.

"Hi there," Asran flashed right in front of the running child-size humanoid.

"You're definitely ugly," the humanoid was surprised seeing a person appeared right in front it. It flinched and took a step backward.

Bald and ugly was definitely the right words for this creature.

Asran spun his body and delivered a roundhouse kick straight at the greenish humanoid's face.

Cracking sound rang in the air. It dropped on the ground as it's eyes turns lifeless.

Asran's spirit sense investigated the corpse.

"Interesting, to think this creature has essence stone in them. They're rather similar to Demon Beast," Asran struck his hand into the corpse's left chest, as dark blood splattered.

"Not bad, better than those pebbles inside Andika's vault," his whole face lit up as if a treasure landed in his hand.

Asran leapt and landed on a tree branch thick enough to support his whole body.

He sat in a meditative pose and puked out a mouthful of blood.

"The side effect is acting up again," Asran was far from recover. Blood Flash Ignition wasn't something easy to handle more so for something at his level.

"Best to recover first," he held on to the essence stone as he started to cultivate Eternal Seven Nights.

That single stone brought forth a gush of qi into his meridian channels. Even a week amount of cultivating on earth couldn't rival against the qi inside an essence stone.

Thirty minutes passed and the essence stone turned into dust. Asran stared at the fleeting dust.

"I need more to recover, time to hunt," he leaped away as he ran through the woods.

His spirit sense was blasting out at all times as he searched for the enemy.

In the meantime, a group of people arrived near the foot of a mountain range.

Sofia disguised as Atira went along the helpless people into a cavern guided by one of the black suits men. She was amazed being inside a portal but her amazement only lasted a while after sensing the danger inside here.

She trusted her instinct more than anything. In her line of work, her instinct had saved her a couple of times.

"Take this pickaxe and mine the ether gems," Sofia grabbed the pickaxe and followed along the trail of others.

They walked further until they reached a large cavern space with the gleaming light emitted from the gems stuck on the wall.

"Start mining you fools," to the shout of these black suit mens, the people with debt started swinging those pickaxe.

Small ether gems kept falling on the ground.

Sofia was feeling the heat through the labourous work. She was covered in sweat after three hours of non-stop mining. Sofia was thankful that silicone mask she wore was the breathable type unlike the outdated version. If it was the old one, she would have fainted out of exhaustion and the heat.

'This is slavery,' thought Sofia with her simple mind.

Her head turned to one side and another. These men and women were working non-stop. Those who slows down even for a second would face the wrath of these black suit men.

"Hey, are you guys okay doing these kind of things? Isn't this forced labor?" Sofia spoke to the man beside her.

"Don't talk to me," he silenced Sofia in a matter of seconds.

"Singapore has laws, these kinds of things is illegal," she tried to persuade the man.

"Stop yourself young lady, you and I are in debt with those underworld people. You think the current government care for people like us? We're the one who put ourselves in here, we've no right to talk about being lawful," the woman in her 30s spoke out, putting an end to Sofia's naivety.

"But..." Sofia couldn't refute as something else was happening at that moment.

"Gunshots?"