The Death System

Ch. 1

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{8:25 am June 24, 3089, in Fortworth Texas, near an abandoned ranch}

The sun is high up by now, jeering at the unlucky folks that ended up outside. Today it's sweltering hot with not a cloud in sight for miles. Most wouldn't dare step a foot outside their perfectly air-conditioned homes or buildings.

That is unless you're a hunter doing a raid today.

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A group of tents is set up with medical personnel already bustling about while the government officers check the number of hunters going on the raid today. As they finish counting, an armored bus pulls in next to them. 

When the doors open fully, a line of 12 walks out. As they walk out, the officers do a headcount. 

"Wait a minute, where's number 13?"

Just then, a tall but scrawny-looking young adult with light brown skin quickly walks out, with pitch-black hair and forest-green eyes. "Ah, I'm... number... 13..." He meekly mumbles, to which the government officers scoff and write a checkmark next to his name. 

"Hey isn't that Elijah Woods? I didn't even know he was on the list!"

"Who? Is he strong or something?"

"No way, he's the complete opposite! He's just a rank F, the lowest of the low!"

"Rank F? I can't even imagine being that weak. I bet he'll just be dead weight."

As the voices continue to insult him, said person just stands in a corner. 'I already know I'm weak... But why can't they just let it go?'  Elijah thinks, wishing he could just let them know that he's not dead weight. But what would he know? He can barely take down a single Wurst. The most he could do is stall for time so the other more capable people could take control of the situation.

Elijah sighed as he shifted from one leg to the other, his anxiety spiking. He wouldn't even be here in the first place if it were up to him, he never did well in social situations. But he needed the money so his siblings can attend college, so here he was.

With that in mind, he quietly shuffled over to the group of people waiting to go inside the gate. 'No matter how many times I see it, it never fails to amaze me...' He thought as he gazed at the giant swirl of colors.

A long time ago, when these gates first appeared, the government tried to figure out what they were but to no avail. It was simply an anomaly that made it possible for two worlds to connect. And it wasn't until people started becoming 'awakened' that they started venturing into them. 

Of course, there were a lot of controversies and political propaganda, but that all changed when the "Incident of 2023" happened. Since then it's just been a race to get the most amount hunters as possible. With the USA being in the lead for now.

And all of that has come down to this. With down-on-their-luck hunters just trying their best to survive. 

'Just do it for the money...' Elijah thought as he stood awkwardly.

"Alright, team, my name is Eugene Grey and I'll be your leader for today!" A blonde-haired man said, and just from the way he was standing screamed he was confident (Possibly arrogant too). He was probably at least a D-rank doing his first or second raid to gain experience.