One connection between Earth and the world of <> filled Avah with an uncanny feeling of nostalgia. It was the rifts of space torn open in the skies, in the seas, and in the most unexpected corners of the world. Even with the advanced technology of Earth and the formidable bestowed powers of the Archangels, tens of thousands of failed attempts at predicting the rifts’ emergence piled up, drilling a sense of despair into the heads of those trying to decipher the uncrackable occurrence pattern deemed as mankind’s greatest mockery.

The overall structure of the rifts in the two worlds was largely unrelated. Avah had categorized the rifts in his previous world as ‘cleaning’ types. Raiders like himself would swiftly enter once the rifts had opened, not giving any time for the things inside to come out. Then, they would sweep the dungeon inside it squeaky clean, killing any hostile creatures, mining every ore and resource, and uprooting every herb at their disposal. Over time, humanity had turned the tables, and the raiders had always played the role of the hunter.

In <>, the first mention of rifts came after introducing one of the protagonists, Anastasia. She was an orphan from the slum before being adopted by a childless baron couple, but did misery love her as the baron’s business went south just a few months after she became their family. Long story short, she turned into the ‘Cinderella’ kind of female protagonist whose beauty attracted many influential men of the Ponian Empire. To call out a few, half of the Empire’s princes; the already engaged crown prince included, and some other high-ranking sentries whose names he couldn't recall. It felt out of character that even the original Avah, lofty second-to-the-throne, showed mild interest towards her.

Fortunately or unfortunately for the people around her, she was so young and naive, often dragging herself and others down with her ignorant kindness. There had been quite a few ‘character development’ events that had happened to her up to the last chapters Avah had read, highlighting how she remained resilient and soft-hearted as she struggled through as the child of powerless and penniless aristocrats. Being called the most beautiful woman even before she became an adult, it was not unexpected that she had received all sorts of harassment from those who were jealous of her and from the women of higher-ranking noble houses who were in love with those men who courted her regardless of what she had to say. It was only after the fiancée of the crown prince plotted her adopted parents' deaths that she decided to stop being a doormat and ran away with the male protagonist of <> with a promise of retribution.

This part of the novel was tedious for Avah who preferred proactive protagonists and had little interest in messy love pentagons where grown-ass men tried to woo the female lead who was in her teens. After all, the novel would begin two years later on Anastasia’s 16th birthday while one of her most persistent love interests, the crown prince was 3 years older than Avah himself…

Back to the start of his train of thought, <> explored an entirely distinct world under the reigning of six Gods referred to as Archangels leading him to assume that the power system of the world would develop around the Gods. So, Avah was pleasantly surprised to see the word ‘rift’ in a conversation she had with her bodyguard, Jacob. It was one of those few chapters he read with his brain turned on when she asked Jacob how he became an ‘Overseer’, someone who had survived a rift.

Summarizing the vague and emotion-filled information Jacob had given, Avah had decided to label the rifts of this world as a 'survival and exploratory’ type. The rifts of this world would emerge with different Areas of Effects pulling whoever was in its scope into a strange subworld. The people would then be forced to survive the terrors of the world. Obeying strange laws, they would be given a chance to dive into its story. Contrasting to the rifts that appeared on Earth, these rifts would close by themselves after a minute or so, whether someone had entered or not.

Jacob recounted that he was having his breakfast at an inn in Maswell around 10 in the morning when he was pulled into a rift of one square meter. The rift surrounded a table at the right corner of the bar, and Jacob included how he remembered that there was a faint ‘here’ conveniently curved onto the table. Thanks to Jacob’s excellent memory and detailed account, Avah readily found the locus of the rift’s opening and arrived on time.

As Avah brushed his fingers across each letter curved by God knew who, he looked around the bar counting six men including the innkeeper. It was just a few minutes before 10, so any man in the bar could be Jacob. Unfortunately, the novel had not included any of Jacob’s physical features except that ‘he was a hefty chap’ so Avah had no way of knowing who he was unless he yelled out ‘Jacob’. Only he felt no need to do so.

Avah did not think he was taking away Jacob’s opportunity; rather, he was the one doing the favor and Jacob owed him a ‘thank you’. To no one’s surprise, Jacob, a side character beside the tragic female lead, only made it through four chapters before dying miserably the third time he entered a rift with his death serving towards building Anastasia’s character. He was her first friend and first lost but he was also a cannon fodder whose only purpose was to drive the story. But, on this day, Jacob’s fate had been twisted, his life was no longer bound by the writing of the novel.

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Since Jacob won't be pulled into a rift, he won't be saved by Baron Sunreach after coming out barely breathing. Then, he won't have a lifetime debt to them, so he just might not meet Anastasia at all. Avah quietly snickered to himself, uncaringly musing about how he had just interfered with the main character’s canon event and how much of a butterfly effect this would have.

The rift did not make him wait for too long, soon opening dutifully, just as Jacob had described. The sudden lighting up of the floor beneath his feet with a bright blue glow had everyone turn their heads towards it at once. Most of them stood up only to get as far away from him and the rift as possible, fearing he would drag them with him. Still, faith in humanity was not completely lost as some people, including a young man with genuine concern on his face and the innkeeper, who had a clue of Avah’s identity, rushed up towards him in a vain attempt to pull him away.

Alas, the rift never let go of the prey it had caught. Avah’s body disappeared in a puff of smoke like the greatest magician’s trick. It all happened so quickly that no one noticed Avah’s smile as he got swallowed whole by the rift.

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Avah’s vision went blank for a few seconds as he experienced what would be called a scene break. When he could finally see again, there was a group of people in front of him with his back facing a concrete road. He quickly counted five men and women with whom he was together at a bus stop in the middle of nowhere with green fields beside both sides of the barely maintained road littered with potholes.

His right hand immediately went for his waist and he was disappointed but not much surprised to discover that his sword was no longer there. He could feel that the gun and other trinkets he had hidden in his clothes were gone, too. Just like the rifts on Earth, this rift also did not allow any outside weapons to be brought in. Although he had anticipated this to happen, he still prepared them just in case.

After he had confirmed that there was no immediate danger around him, he focused on the group. Since the moment Avah regained his sense of hearing, there had been loud yelling and explicit cursing from a young man whom Avah finally got a good look at. With a combination of quite a few silver piercings on his face and his bright purple hair, the young man looked like the type of youngster nagging old-fashioned boomers from Avah’s previous world would constantly pick on for his appearance. But, at this very moment, no one gave a damn about him which only fueled his anger as he pointed his hands around and snarled, “Are you all working together on this f*cking prank!? T-This is my last warning! If you don’t send me back, I will send you all to hell!” He was so busy with his outburst that he didn’t even notice Avah’s body materializing out of thin air.

Like everyone else, Avah also ignored him to find four women all squashed up together on one side of the bench. Two of them were looking very distressed, their bodies shaking and their faces tear-stained as the other two hushedly comforted them. He didn’t overlook the boot knife hidden in the trousers of the woman with blue-pink cotton candy hair leaning against the pole with the bus sign. Since she could bring the knife here, it could only mean that she got it from her previous rift. He also noted that from time to time, she would give looks of annoyance towards the man with a plump baby-faced man manspreading at the other side of the bench, refusing to give her a seat.

Avah turned his head towards the rest of the group when his eyes met with a honed pair of deep brown orbs belonging to a towering man with a height of roughly two meters. Avah speculated that the man definitely must not have had a single arm day in his life skipped for them to be that pumped up. The man finally approached the group and took a quick look at everyone before placing his rough hands on purple-haired’s shoulder, immediately shutting the young man up. Anyone at the spot could tell that there was something about the two-meter dude that was unlike themselves.

“All right, that’s 10. Listen well, newcomers. I don’t know what kind of world you all came from and neither I nor this place give a hoot.”

Purple-haired was about to open his mouth again but he was forced to shut up feeling a sharp pressure through his arm that could easily dislocate his joint. Thankfully, it was just a warning as his arm was still intact. The man continued, “This world is a fragment of disorder, a place with fragile logic where malign entities beyond your imagination roam. So, congratulations for being unlucky enough to have entered somehow. Although some weirdos would consider this a chance of a lifetime still. Before I continue, you pieces of meat try calling out for your system.”

To his words, Irina, a young girl with teary doe eyes, felt like crying again. She was just a normal high school student on her way home when she suddenly found herself in this strange world with these people. She thought she was going to die an unexplainable death. She managed to calm herself down a little after Ning and Mara told her that as long as she could persist, she would be able to go back home. But they didn’t tell her what she needed to persevere, only saying she would get to know soon enough. She felt that they were being very unreasonable and that this whole incident was illogical. Now, this man was saying things she could not understand. Call what? How? She did not have her phone with her, or she would have called the police long ago. How’s she supposed to call this system?

Just as soon as she thought that, a bright blue screen appeared in front of her with texts she couldn’t quite comprehend written on it. She quickly looked around herself and was going to voice out this supernatural phenomenon she thought she was the only one experiencing, but like herself, everyone was looking at the air in front of them. Although she couldn’t see anything, she could tell that they were reading something.

Avah also had a very familiar bright blue screen in front of him. The interfaces looked similar to the point that Avah and anyone in his place wouldn't be able to stop themselves from guessing that they were likely written by the same people. Maybe it was the same system that managed the rifts in every world.

'Ha…', Avah had no choice but to let it sink in that he really was back at square one.