Ethan stepped out of the gate with uneven footing, the world beyond the shimmering threshold hitting him all at once.

Darius hung over his shoulder, completely unconscious, and on the other, the red-eyed A Rank was no better, limp and in an almost comatose state. And in his bloodied grip, he dragged Darius’s spear along the ground, the metal scraping harshly against concrete with every movement.

For a brief second, everything fell silent.

Then suddenly...

Flash! Flash! Flash!

Cameras exploded into life, and voices immediately followed.

"Someone’s come out!"

"Is that-?!"

"Wait, that’s the reported E Rank!"

"What the hell is going on?!"

The sudden chaos hit like a wave, reporters shouting over one another while military personnel surged forward, trying and failing to maintain control of the perimeter.

Ethan squinted slightly, his vision still adjusting to the brightness outside after the dim, oppressive atmosphere of the gate. The experience inside had only lasted a couple of hours in real time, but it felt like a lifetime compressed into violence, blood, and survival.

And from it, he had progressed massively, not that he could show it.

Instead, Ethan acted like the E Rank he was supposed to be,

He staggered forward, his knees trembling as if they would give out at any moment, his breathing ragged and uneven. Every step looked like a struggle, his body swaying dangerously under the combined weight of two Titled far stronger than him.

Which, to anyone watching, made perfect sense, as an E Rank carrying two people while injured was very unusual.

Ethan continued his act, falling hard.

His knees buckled first before his entire body gave out, crashing to the ground with both unconscious figures still draped over him. It was a messy, painful-looking collapse, one that drew even more shouts from the crowd.

"Get medics over here!"

"Move! Move!"

"Careful - those two are high-ranking Titled!"

Ethan remained where he was, pinned beneath their weight, his chest rising and falling heavily as if he didn’t have the strength to even push them off.

’I should get a fucking Academy Award for this.’

An E Rank barely surviving a gate, dragging out the stronger Titled who had fought for him, before collapsing at the finish line - that was a story people could accept.

It was also the best he could come up with.

Around him, military personnel rushed in, quickly securing the area while medics moved to assess Darius and the A Rank. Reporters strained against the perimeter, cameras still flashing, desperate to capture every angle of the unbelievable scene.

None of this matched their expectations.

They had been preparing for a Gate Break, or at the very least for the B Rank and accompanying C Ranks to emerge, battered but victorious.

Instead, they got this.

An E rank, the only one conscious, carrying a B Rank, who was inches from death, and what appeared to be a sleeping A Rank.

It didn’t make sense.

But something else, even more baffling, suddenly occurred and took centre stage. Without warning, the gate vanished as if it had never existed in the first place.

It was already odd enough that it only appeared once Ethan had stepped into it, which, of course, he didn’t know. But now, moments after, it disappeared.

This type of gate was simply unheard of, as everyone fell into a heavy, stunned silence.

Where were the others who had entered the gate?

The loss of this many Titled, even if only C Ranks and below, hadn’t occurred in a long time. But more importantly, there were no resources to extract or beasts and monster corpses to study.

That was one of the biggest value gates provided.

Usually, gates would remain open even after a clearing squad went inside. The clearing squad would deal with the beasts and monsters within, then an extraction squad would be sent.

Gates were still being studied, and many irregularities were hard to measure and quantify. But they would usually have a window of at least a couple of hours after clearance, and there had only been a few instances where a gate closed while someone within was alive.

As such, a rule of thumb was that if there was an active Titled within a gate, it would remain open. Then, once stable gates are cleared, extraction must occur within an hour.

Of course, there existed other variables that were hard to account for, but that was how the Association had operated and thus far. This maximised both public safety and profit.

Yet this gate was a complete bust.

From the Titled Association’s standpoint, this was a nightmare, but from Ethan’s perspective, it was perfect.

He suppressed a smile.

’I guess I don’t need to worry too much about leaving any traces of killing that archer bitch or of anything else unexplainable within the gate."

Whatever had happened inside had disappeared with the gate, and never had the same gate appeared twice. Everything had handled itself, and his act remained flawless.

Ethan stayed limp beneath the two unconscious bodies, his breathing uneven, his expression just strained enough to sell the image of someone who had barely made it out alive.

He was just a lucky E Rank who survived, whom nobody was suspicious of.

Or at least that’s how it should have been.

But not everyone watching was so easily fooled...

-

Earlier that day, far from the chaos surrounding the gate, Harold Whitaker, the head of the USA Titled Association, had issued two simple orders.

The first was: "Keep things contained."

They had already failed at doing that, which was hard with hundreds of hungry reporters desperate for new scoops.

The second was: "Deploy the nearest A Rank in case of a Gate Break."

And there was no failing this order; it was a standard precaution that had to be done and was carried out immediately.

Though there was one issue.

The nearest available A Rank just so happened to be someone who was... difficult, to say the least. She didn’t like being called in on short notice, didn’t like being told what to do, and definitely didn’t like babysitting gates that might break.

But she liked, no, loved money, even more than most.

A massive payout for simply being present was more than enough to convince her. As such, she showed up late, unbothered and entirely uninterested.

She was one of the few A Ranks who publicly revealed her Title, and it was the same as her moniker: "Riot Valkyrie."

There was nothing more fitting for the powerful lunatic.

As for her real name, it was irrelevant, simply because most people didn’t dare use it.

She was known for doing whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted, consequences be damned. The only reason she remained tied to the Association at all was because even she couldn’t ignore the benefits it provided.

Still, that didn’t mean she had to like it.

So instead of standing around with the rest of the personnel, she lounged atop a nearby warehouse, one leg dangling over the edge as she lazily observed the gate site below.

Dressed in black leather from head to toe, her outfit clung tightly to her figure, reinforced in subtle ways that hinted at both style and function. A cropped jacket, fingerless gloves, heavy boots - she was dressed like a skimpy biker.

Her dark hair whipped slightly in the wind as she lay back against the rooftop, arms behind her head, eyes half-lidded in boredom. The way she carried herself made it clear that she was free-spirited.

"Man, if this thing doesn’t break soon, I’m gonna fall asleep."

She sighed.

It was an hour later when the gate reappeared, and she immediately sensed it, her eyes snapping open.

"Finally."

She pushed herself up slightly, gaze sharpening as the first figure stepped through. And what she saw immediately caught her attention.

"Interesting..."

She watched closely as Ethan staggered, as he fell, as the chaos erupted around him. And while everyone else saw a survivor on the brink, she saw right through his act.

A grin spread across her lips.

"Now, that’s not normal."

Seeing the state of Darius, who she knew was pretty capable, she assumed the gate had been somewhat tough. That excited her as she stretched lazily and prepared to have some fun.

But before she could dive into it and check out what was inside, the gate closed again.

"Damn it, where’s it gone?" 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

She was confused and frustrated, and the only one who could explain to her why she couldn’t let loose was the pretending E Rank.

And that was how Ethan’s encounter with his third A Rank began...