“There is something wrong with the humans,” Alice muttered under her nose.

“You’ve said it a dozen times already,” Keynes said. “Now, please, stay here. If anyone comes, alert me.”

Keynes unlocked the door to a warehouse and entered it. He’d spent the last few hours killing the rift monsters, then another hour compacting the essence and strengthening his core.

Crest was an important city that meant to create a barrier between the rift monsters and Valence. The largest city in the region.

Keynes had fought the rift monsters, hiding from the eyes of the city defenders until more helicopters came and rained death on the monsters. At that point, Keynes decided to climb the walls and enter the city.

He didn’t have any money and didn’t want to risk revealing his possession to anyone, he was forced to break in and steal military food provisions. With his Talent and the Cloak of the Shadows, it was child’s play.

Most of the food was in the form of dry rations, which was fine. Inside a city, water wasn’t an issue. And Keynes hoped to figure out where to find the ingredients to build the liquid filtration formation. Alice had assured him that the formation could be permanently placed on something like a bottle and used without limits. At least, until Keynes improved his Purified Body.

Keynes filled up his dimensional space and left the warehouse. He didn’t feel sorry about it. This stuff belonged to the World Government, they could easily replenish it.

He tuned Alice out as she kept mumbling about the humans and their problems. There was nothing Keynes could do about this right now. He didn’t even know if he should.

“Let’s find a place to sleep.”

Alice perked up.

“Oh, let me, let me, master!”

Keynes nodded, feeling the weariness affecting his mind. He followed Alice to a river where she pointed at the spot dangerously close to the water.

“Here.”

“No,” Keynes shook his head, although the sandy bank looked inviting. Keynes picked the first building with a loft and the entrance from outside. He charged Alice with guarding him and went to sleep in a corner.

***

He slept for eight hours and was really pissed at Alice for not waking him up earlier.

“Your body needs to recover. Your stamina was reaching the bottom and even your health needed to recover a few percent.”

“Right,” he yawned. “We need to find some money.”

After explaining to her what the money was, they quietly left the loft.

A bank sounded like the best choice, Keynes didn’t want to steal from individuals.

“Do you have any tips about moral dilemmas?” he asked Alice.

“No, but you’re getting funny looks from the people,” she replied then added. “By the way, the humans—”

He tuned her out, tired of listening about the spiritual deficiencies of the humans. He noticed it now, passers-by gave him suspicious looks. It had to be the cloak. Its dark purple colour and cut didn’t look ordinary, although the thing that turned the heads the most had to be Keynes’s completely obscured face.

“I need to change.”

He found a dead end and swapped his cloak for a jacket from Hugo.

“Watch for CCTVs, if you see any, tell me immediately. Some cities have facial recognition and I don’t want the World Government to find me here.”

“Hm,” Alice hesitated. “Why cannot we leave then? And what are CCTVs?”

“Because we must find out what’s going on. We can’t operate without any information. CCTV is a monitoring system. A form of transmitting video from one place to another. Our current technology allows us to use A.I. to recognize faces and send alerts.”

“Sounds dangerous.”

“Yeah, but we don’t have a choice, so if you see a camera device anywhere let me know.”

“Sure,” she said unconvincingly.

They returned to the street and were about to pick a direction when a car pulled up and two troopers, rank two, exited the car. They looked around, then noticed Keynes and beckoned him.

“Have you seen anyone wearing a purple cloak with a hood?”

Keynes stiffened but shook his head.

“No, sir.”

The trooper dismissed him. Keynes walked away while the troopers stayed behind, watching the street.

“That was a close call,” Alice said.

Indeed, it was and Keynes cursed himself for being incautious. A mere thought of the World Government catching him sent a shiver through his spine. No. This would never happen again.

Luckily, the city of Crest was full of trees with many narrow streets. Keynes found a bank but, of course, the time of the day was unsuitable for a robbery so he decided to return later on. As Keynes and Alice meandered the streets of Crest, they neared the walls and heard the gunfire slowly picking up.

Long lines of civilians waited before the military building. Keynes approached the tail of the line and asked a middle-aged man.

“Hi, what’s going on here?”

The man gave Keynes a confused look, but when Keynes didn’t burst into a laugh, he frowned.

“Haven’t you heard about general mobilisation?”

“I am kind of new here.”

“Ah. In that case, my name’s Bastien.” Bastien extended his hand to Keynes.

“Brandon.” Keynes shook Bastien’s hand. “I got here yesterday and had a difficult night if you’re catching my drift.”

Bastien laughed as if everything that Keynes said was obvious.

“What do you mean?” Alice asked, clearly unable to see through Keynes’s words. Keynes had to ignore her.

“The monster warzone was attacked yesterday.”

“The monster warzone? What’s that?”

Bastien’s forehead creased.

“You really haven’t heard about the Alps warzone?”

“Oh, yeah, they talked about it on TV. There are several uncleared rifts. Something to do with difficult terrain.”

Keynes’s words put a smile on Bastien’s face.

“You must have old information. A week ago, the World Government confirmed the truth. The Alps warzone is where seven Level 2 and six Level 1 rifts are left uncleared so the government’s army can level up there.”

This was something new. It proved that the government actually tried to be smart. But it seemed, they’d failed again.

“I haven’t seen TV in over two weeks. Any clue who might attack the warzone?”

“No idea and I’d advise against asking the troopers. Top secrets and all that.”

The gunfire eased down.

“Why the mobilisation though?” Keynes asked, finding it strange to ask the civilians to fight. “Doesn’t the government have enough soldiers to defend the city?”

“Brandon,” Bastien said, with a quiet intensity that indicated that he had something important but sensitive to say. Ignoring the fact that Bastien seemingly forgot that Keynes could be an incognito trooper, he also met Keynes barely ten minutes ago. “Disregarding the fact that most troopers went to Grenoble, Nice and Marseille where the walls aren’t yet finished, the World Government has other things on their plate. There are rumours that a massive rift cluster has been discovered somewhere in Asia and they are moving the army.”

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“How do you know this?”

Bastien shrugged.

“From TV.”

Keynes squinted his eyes. They were talking about this on TV and he spoke about it as if it was some top-secret. What the hell?

The gunfire returned, this time, it was as if the entire wall began shooting at the same time. So the government kept 13 uncleared rifts to farm essence.

“I think we have nothing to look for in the Alps,” Keynes said to Alice when he walked away from Bastien. “They’d never let us enter and clear these rifts.”

“What…”

Sirens started blaring, then troopers came out of the building and began handing weapons to everyone. Keynes was close enough that they called out to him.

“The wall is breached! The wall is breached. Everyone, get a weapon and defend the city!”

Keynes accepted a rifle but didn’t mean to use it unless really necessary.

“Master, are you planning to fight again?”

“Yes.”

From there, things escalated quickly. The monsters came from the east. Most civilians locked themselves inside the buildings, which worked to some extent as the rift monsters followed the sound and the gunfire drew them deeper into the city.

A fourth-ranked trooper was the leader of a squad Keynes was thrown into. Most of the people besides Keynes were Level 1 civilians without any military experience. Keynes had a wealth of experience in comparison.

“This is a bad idea, master,” Alice said and sat down on Keynes’s shoulder.

I want to help those people, he replied.

“Why?”

Because it is not their fault. And what is worse, they aren’t prepared to face the rift monsters. I hoped that maybe the government knows what they are doing but they are reckless and incompetent… I think I know what I need to do.

“What?” she asked with suspicion.

You will see.

“Everyone,” Keynes called out to his squad. Twenty faces, including the leader, turned to him. “Bullets won’t be very effective against Level 2 monsters but I don’t think any of you have items from the—”

“Watch your mouth!” the leader shouted. He was Level 3. Alice had told Keynes that the man’s body had a mix of human and rift essence. Keynes hadn’t known this was possible but it was and it meant, the man might be his equal, strength-wise. “It is forbidden to speak about the matters regarding the rifts.”

Keynes straightened up.

“Those people are going to die. You won’t stop the monsters with this.” Keynes threw the rifle on the ground. “They won’t even stay conscious when the rift essence hits them.”

The leader aimed the rifle at Keynes. The entire squad froze.

“Who are you?”

There was nothing Keynes could say that would deescalate the situation. Or rather, Keynes didn’t want to de-escalate it. Those people were victims of the government’s lies.

“It’s not important. All that matters now is to get to the breach, close it and push the rift monsters away from the city. Am I wrong?”

“Who are you?” the leader repeated, his voice hard. He didn’t wear a helmet and Keynes could see his unyielding eyes. This was going to be a bother. “Answer me or I will shoot you.”

“Master, the monsters are getting close.”

Keynes’s heart was hammering in his chest. The civilians looked terrified and the squad leader turned out to be another bully.

“Sir…” someone whispered. “The monsters… are coming.”

They could hear them now. They were less than two hundred metres from their position. Keynes’s and the leader’s eyes were locked on each other.

The leader sniffed and jerked the weapon away.

“This isn’t over. We’ll return to this conversation after the battle. If you survive the day.”

It wasn’t the best morale booster for the rest of the squad. Other squads positioned alongside the main street, opened fire. Keynes’s squad did the same.

“When the essence hits you, try to circulate it around your body. Don’t let it…” Keynes trailed off. No one was listening to him. They were shooting at the monsters, forgetting about the world around them.

This lasted until each squad ran out of bullets or the monsters got too close and the essence overwhelmed the defenders. Either way, the monsters pressed too fast and too hard.

“How many monsters were in the Alps warzone?” Keynes asked the leader as he ordered a withdrawal from the position.

“That is none of your business.”

Keynes ground his teeth but didn’t respond. He feared he’d punch the man in the face. They were about to leave when the screaming started. Some of the monsters shot ahead and caught up with retreating squads.

“If you survive this, I want you to reflect on today’s events and know that this is the fault of the people like you, too important to share the truth with the rest.”

Keynes threw the rifle on the ground. It was useless. Keynes took his cloak out of the dimensional space, then the scimitar-like sword. This was a very risky move. It might bring back the government’s attention on him but a part of Keynes wanted to show the public the other way. The shopkeeper had spoken about two dozen ‘heroes’ who seemed like the people who had understood what the world was turning into.

“What the hell?”

“You better run,” Keynes told his squad.

The civilians started immediately running away. The leader stayed though. He was out of bullets and so he didn’t have anything to threaten Keynes with. Well, with the exception of his unfriendly face.

“You’re one of the vigilantes. You have been outlawed.”

Keynes squinted at him, narrowing his eyes. He knew that the man couldn’t see his face but it didn’t matter, his tone was conveying his mood pretty well.

“We both know this city is lost. If you aren’t here to help these people, then at least don’t get in my way.”

“Well said, master!”

The squad leader turned sharply and fled. Keynes’s hands trembled. Standing up to people wasn’t as easy as fighting the monsters.

A few seconds later, the rift monsters came. The sword dropped down, killing the smaller monsters with ease. They were only Level 1s. The Level 2s came shortly after them, and some of them were uncommon rarities with passive skills – demolition – that increased damage against structures by 10%.

“Warn me when my stamina reaches 40%,” Keynes told Alice then threw himself into the battle.

***

Two hours later, he collapsed inside a basement. His body was feeling stiff from exhaustion and pain. Even though the monsters were on the smaller end, their damage eventually accumulated, pushing Keynes to retreat.

“You have killed two hundred-and-twelve monsters,” Alice said.

He had no idea that the number was this high but his body was bursting with essence, which he hadn’t absorbed. He’d decided to work on his core while his body recovered.

After the initial wave of the monsters, there had been fewer monsters, which had given Keynes a chance to take a breath until he couldn’t fight anymore.

He started to spin the essence around his core with greater and greater speed. Then gently guided it inside the core. Without upgrading his lesser cultivation technique this was all he could do. He burned all the essence in a matter of minutes. It also highlighted a potential problem with the advancement of the general population.

“There are too many people to advance their spiritual stages and level up.” None of the essence he’d gathered went into the level progression. Not that it mattered as the maxing out was going to ‘destroy’ the progression anyway but most people wouldn’t be in a position to max out their attributes and they’d be still forced to waste the essence through cultivation.

“As I said before, this is the way the system culls the weak.”

“You didn’t say that,” Keynes turned to Alice.

“Oh. It must be new information then.”

Keynes frowned, then jolted his spiritual connection with Alice. She squeaked.

“Hey!”

“Next time, you get new information, let me know, okay?”

“Sure, master,” Alice said but Keynes sensed her mischievous intent. Her character seemed to develop and he didn’t know what to think about it.

“Wake me up when my body recovers enough to fight.”

He closed his eyes and relaxed. Alice jolted him almost right away.

“What?”

“It has recovered enough.”

Keynes checked his health, it sat on 85% and his stamina was at 35%. Ah, hell, at least he’d train his Will and Vitality.

“That’s not the right way,” Alice said, reacting to his thoughts.

“I don’t care.”

***

Keynes moved from a shadow to a shadow toward the east where the breach was supposed to be. He’d had to stop fighting because his stamina was approaching 5% and his movements were sluggish and slow. There were bite marks all over his body.

The night was still an hour away but the shadows were deep enough for Keynes to easily hide him. What struck him was the complete absence of gunfire on this side of the city and what hit him even harder was the presence of people trapped inside houses. Alice sensed many of them.

This tore Keynes. He wanted to help but if the breach wasn’t secured, nothing he did here mattered as the influx of the monster would continue. In the end, he decided to keep going east.

The breach turned out to be a destroyed gate. But that wasn’t the problem. The issue was … that the gate had been blown up. There was no way he could fix it. Luckily, the area near the gate was free from the monsters. Keynes approached it. Heaps of dead monsters were everywhere. The defence here had been fierce but as Keynes predicted. There were only so many bullets.

“WATCH OUT!”

Keynes sensed the blade as it sailed toward his neck. He dodged it, rolled over and took a defensive position.

How didn’t you sense them?

A person, wearing a black robe, a brown mask and holding two short swords slowly stepped toward Keynes.

“Because… oh, they can hide their spiritual aura!”

It either meant a high level or someone with an aura control technique. Keynes cursed for not having proper training with a sword. So many things that needed to be rectified…

“Master… their Spirit, it’s in the Medium Stage, at least. If it is in a higher stage, I won’t be able to tell anyway.”

Keynes nodded.

The assailant kept advancing, albeit slowly. Keynes drew back, wondering what he should do.

What is their Level?

Alice didn’t reply for a moment then she said that the person had levelled up only with the rift essence and everything about them was hidden.

Could it be an item?

“Yes. And I don’t like it.”

They stepped in silence and if Keynes didn’t do something, his back would soon touch the wall.

“What do you want?” Keynes asked.

“Kill you,” the man’s voice replied and he surged forward, faster than Keynes anticipated.