A rift is a passage to another dimension.
Until one enters, there is no way to know which civilization or point in time they will be transported to.
As the light faded and his vision returned, Pinenes immediately began assessing the setting of this world.
“This place….”
The group stood on the rooftop of a ruined building.
Everywhere, the remnants of heavily destroyed skyscrapers filled the surroundings.
The scene resembled that of a city that had met its end.
“My goodness, a world like this actually exists? What are these towering castles…!”
“Wait, could this be… Earth?”
“There’s no way….”
Kim Taesung dismissed Lee Seyoung’s murmuring.
Looking up at the sky, two moons hung in the night.
One was green, the other purple.
Though the dimension seemed vaguely familiar at first glance, the presence of these celestial bodies confirmed that it was a civilization completely different from Earth.
Pinenes approached the broken railing and looked downward.
The bottom was nowhere in sight, suggesting that each of these skyscrapers reached several kilometers high.
Such construction technology did not exist on Earth, meaning this world belonged to a far more advanced civilization.
Watching the desolate city, Han So-hye asked in a trembling voice,
“This time… it’ll be easier, right?”
“It usually is.”
Whoooosh.
A strong wind swept across the rooftop of the ruined city.
Finally, the details of their mission unfolded before them.
[Stage: Escape]
- Nearby buildings will soon collapse completely!
- Reach the designated location within 10 minutes!
(Basic Reward: 10C)
(Contribution-Based Bonus Reward: 30C)
This isn’t difficult.
After checking the message, Pinenes nodded.
The reward size generally correlated with the difficulty of a rift.
A mission with a base reward of 10 Credits was likely of average difficulty.
There was no need to fight fierce monsters or use any newly acquired skills.
That must be the destination.
Narrowing his eyes, he focused on a distant point.
About 500 meters away, atop another building, a shimmering pillar of light stood.
That’s right—if they could cover 500 meters within 10 minutes, they would clear the rift and claim its rewards.
However, the path to their goal was far from straightforward.
No human could jump across the gaps between these buildings with sheer leg strength alone.
“Ah…?”
Han So-hye, standing at the edge of the rooftop, let out a dazed murmur.
She had just noticed the countless “bridges” connecting the tops of the buildings.
No, rather than bridges, “planks” would be a more accurate description—thin walkways devoid of any railings or handholds.
“We have to cross… this?”
“Is there another way?”
“Well, no, but….”
“Then let’s move.”
Without further delay, Pinenes took the lead.
A mere one-meter-wide plank connecting rooftop to rooftop.
He walked across the dizzying height as if unbothered by anything.
[Time until city collapse: 9 minutes 25 seconds]
The others, reluctant to be left behind, had no choice but to follow.
However, their pace was several times slower than Pinenes.
The psychological pressure of walking across such great heights without safety measures was impossible to ignore.
“Huah…!”
“Huff, huff.”
“Damn it, can’t you slow down just a little?”
Having finally reached the opposite rooftop, the group let out a collective sigh of relief.
Surprisingly, the old man appeared unfazed, but the remaining three looked pale.
Especially So-hye—her face was pale, her legs giving out as she sank to the ground.
It seemed she had been forced into this situation once again.
For those with ordinary emotions, their reactions were completely understandable.
Increasing their physical capabilities would solve this.
Pinenes quickly found a solution.
Although not its original purpose, one of his newly acquired skills would prove useful in this situation.
[Skill: Enchant (Low-Rank)]
- Increases all stats of a designated target by 5.
- However, no individual stat can exceed 20.
- Can only be maintained on one target at a time.
“Ahh…! Kyaaah!”
“Stay still.”
Fwwoosh!
A faint glow enveloped So-hye.
In the next moment, Pinenes effortlessly lifted her into his arms and dashed across the sky.
With just five leaps, he cleared a 30-meter gap.
For a moment, the others were struck speechless.
Only the old mage muttered to himself, as if understanding something.
“…Seems to be some form of enhancement magic.”
Having safely landed on the opposite rooftop, Pinenes waited for the others to cross.
I can’t carry them all.
It wasn’t about favoritism.
In a world where a single misstep meant death, survival demanded that one grow accustomed to such perilous situations.
“Look down.”
“……!”
Following his words, So-hye hesitantly glanced over the edge.
A wave of dizziness instantly overwhelmed her.
She exhaled sharply, struggling to find her voice.
“Aren’t you not supposed to look down?”
“No. Don’t turn away.”
Just like the others, So-hye was still too unstable.
He had only helped her momentarily, but in the end, she needed to move forward on her own.
“To be honest… I have acrophobia. Even on a ship, I never look at the sky outside.”
“You’ll have to overcome that.”
“…I suppose so.”
He was right—she couldn’t keep making excuses to avoid danger.
This world had no room for weakness.
Standing at the edge, she forced herself to look down.
However, a wave of vertigo hit her, and she quickly averted her gaze.
She wasn’t ready to walk while looking below—at least not yet.
“This time, go alone.”
“Okay.”
Pinenes’ instruction was firm.
Taking a deep breath to steady herself, So-hye slowly stepped onto the one-meter-wide plank.
One step… then another.
Suddenly, her vision blurred, and objects seemed to double.
Was this another hallucination caused by her fear of heights?
“Ah… huh?!”
Startled, she snapped her gaze upward.
What she saw wasn’t an illusion.
Kraaaah!
With a shrill, animalistic cry, a massive dark creature felled down from the sky.
The sight of the unknown monster bearing down on her caused her footing to slip.
She completely lost her balance.
The distance between her and the plank grew wider.
Is this… how I die?
Flashes of her life streaked through her mind.
At that moment—
Slash! Blood splattered before her eyes.
Vwoom— Vwoom—
She could feel the resonance of light close by.
Then, she saw it.
A monstrous creature, the size of a child, cleaved cleanly in half, plummeting into the abyss below.
“…….”
Pinenes supported So-hye’s waist with one hand as he watched the receding ‘monstrous bird.’
The identity of that flying monster was undoubtedly…
Why is a monster…
But there was a more urgent problem than the monster’s appearance.
My vision is splitting…!
Pinenes narrowed his eyes.
Everything in front of him had begun to blur into two.
The same phenomenon So-hye had experienced. What had been dismissed as an illusion caused by acrophobia was now happening to Pinenes as well.
“What’s going on…?”
“Ugh, my eyes feel weird too!”
Kim Taesung and Lee Seyoung, who had arrived on the rooftop a step later, also rubbed their eyes frantically.
But no matter how much they blinked, the distorted landscape remained unchanged.
The warping of the world grew worse over time.
Kwaduk! Kwaduduk!
A cracking sound, like glass fracturing, began to echo from somewhere.
This isn’t good.
Disasters always strike when least expected.
Are the early-stage rift—excluding the tutorial—safe?
Generally, yes. But not always.
Humans tend to dismiss low-probability events.
No way…
Pinenes finally grasped what was happening.
Dimensional interference.
Two closely aligned dimensions pull at each other until they eventually overlap.
When that happens, the existing dimension transforms into something entirely new. Such rifts have been given various names.
The most well-known term was—
Did we enter a layered rift?
Layered Rift.
The reason for that name was simple.
When rifts overlap, so do the missions required to clear them.
[Warning! Two stages have overlapped!]
[Clear rewards significantly increased!]
[2nd Stage: Concealment]
A second mission had been assigned.
[Stage: Escape]
[Stage: Concealment]
……
[Stage: Escapesalment]
The first and second missions had merged into one.
Pinenes carefully read the newly appearing text.
Some of the letters were distorted, but he could still roughly interpret the message.
- You □ encounter a swarm of fear■some ‘Wind Crows’!
- Here’s a h■nt: These crows only inhabit extremely cold re■ons. If you utilize that tra■t well, you might not even need to fight…?
- Now, survive until the time li■it is up!
(Basic re■ard: 15C)
(Contribution-based re■ard distribution: 50C)
And then the countdown began.
[Time until city collapse: …]
[Time until enemies disappear: …]
[Time until cietycol collapse: 8 minutes 24 seconds]
Before they knew it, the surrounding scenery had changed.
The world before them was no longer just a desolate, abandoned city.
Like overlapping holographic text, parts of the space itself were layered and distorted.
It was as if they had entered a glitched-out game world.
The surroundings were filled with shapeless polygonal masses, and the guiding pillar of light no longer pointed anywhere noticeable.
Kaaak— Kaaak—!
Only the cries of birds echoed through the sky.
“…Everything suddenly looks strange.”
At Sohae’s trembling voice, Pinenes turned to look at her.
Like a misaligned image, her figure had split into two.
“I feel like I’m losing my mind. I’m seeing hallucinations…”
“No. This isn’t a hallucination.”
“Huh?”
As he glanced at his bewildered companions, Pinenes spoke.
And then, he apologized to them.
His mistake was failing to consider all possible scenarios.
“My careless judgment ended up making me a liar.”
The probability of encountering a layered rift immediately after the tutorial was close to zero.
But since it wasn’t entirely zero, he should have been more cautious.
“…Is this place dangerous?”
“Probably more than the tutorial.”
“……”
A brief silence.
The first to accept the situation was Kim Taesung.
Among them, his survival instincts seemed to be the sharpest.
“I wasn’t expecting much from the start. So, what do we do now?”
“Same as before. If you follow my lead, you’ll survive.”
Fwoosh!
A golden flame flickered in Pinenes’s eyes.
In this distorted world where their sense of direction was lost, only the Iron Sovereign’s power could serve as a compass.
“Just trust me and follow.”
His tone held on arrogance.
Yet the moment Pinenes’s voice reached them, the same inexplicable trust they had felt during the tutorial settled in their hearts once more.
“I’ll take the lead.”
Slash!
His sword sliced through a crow.
Kyaaak! Kaaak…
As the wretched cries of the birds faded, the group quickly walked behind him.
What’s happening?
Trailing behind, So-hye suddenly felt something odd and looked down.
Am I… running right now?
She was sprinting across a platform suspended at an unfathomable height.
Even though she was looking down from several kilometers above the ground, she felt no fear.
Her body didn’t even feel like her own.
Just moments ago, she had been paralyzed with acrophobia—yet now, it was as if she had never been afraid at all.
“Keep your eyes forward.”
They had safely reached the next rooftop.
At Pinenes’s words, everyone snapped back to reality.
“Monsters are coming.”
Kaaak! Kaaak!
Even though crows the size of humans circled them, there was no fear.
Instead, their bodies were filled with an unshakable conviction.
Because deep in their minds, the memory of their victory against the goblins resurfaced once more.
