Chapter 12 - Seekers

When his mother started asking about his whereabouts, Randy was overwhelmed by the series of questions from his mother. He only stared blankly for a while, not knowing which one of her questions to answer first. Nonetheless, Randy had prepared himself before coming inside the mansion and so, he opened his mouth after a brief moment and recounted what he went through.

"Mom, I ran into a rift along the way home, and I was not able to come home in time because I was caught up in a fight between two terrifying monsters. I was knocked unconscious at the time and when I came to, the two monsters were nowhere to be found." Randy briefly said to his mother with a slight frown on his face as if recalling his horrifying encounter, shocking his mother greatly.

"What?!"

His mother was shocked for a moment and then she quickly inquired after her son a moment later, "Are you okay?! Did you get hurt anywhere?!"

Randy was surprised by the concern in his mother's voice. Randy stared blankly at his mother's agitated actions as she started searching his body for any wounds. The last time his mother was this concerned about him, he does not even remember it anymore, but if he had to guess, it had to be when he was still a kid. She had never shown him this kind of concern ever since they learned that he could not awaken his ability and it only got worse every year, when the same reaction from the machine says that he had not awakened his ability.

But now, this same mother of his was actually worried about him. Luckily, Randy had extra clothes in his backpack so the ripped and bloodied clothes that came about as he was beaten by Jeremiah and his goons was swapped with a new one. So his mother did not discover that he was actually bullied by his classmates. In fact, whenever he talks about how he was bullied by his classmates, his parents never said anything and only proceeds to say that it was something that would happen during this age, and it was only his bad luck that he could not awaken his ability. Randy always felt his heart tighten whenever he heard those nonchalant words from his mother. She was cold and indifferent to her child's plight and sometimes, he wonders if she was really his mother. As for his father, let us just say that he does not say anything to agree with his mother or against his mother; He was mostly impartial when it comes to family matters.

"Mom, I am fine. Luckily, those creatures did not pay any attention to me as they were engrossed in their own fight otherwise…" Randy said with grim look on his face. Right now, he was trying to act as pitiful as possible so that his mother would believe his white lies more, however this act of his had the opposite response.

"Hmph! How pathetic! You were so weak that even the monsters decided not to spare you a single glance. How disgraceful! I have no idea why I even have a son like you. How come you cannot awaken your ability when your little brother, Rex, had already awakened his ability and now, he even showed promising future and was already recruited by an organization that wishes to sponsor him. Your little sister had also awakened hers at an early age, but we still don't know what ability she has but she is still better off than you!" Randy's mother looked at him with a disdainful expression on her face as she spoke to him and then she turned around, walking towards the living room's couch and then she sat down and proceeded to watch the news on the television.

"…"

Randy was stunned by this sudden this turn of events. Where did her worried expression from earlier go? What was he thinking when he thought that his mother had changed her expression towards him? That was only a momentarily response from her and this was how she usually react to these things. With that thought in mind, Randy decided to drop his pitiful act as he decided that it was better if he leave things as it is now. Randy was walking to his room, which was on the second floor, but he recalled something as he suddenly turned around and said to his mother.

"Mom, I am going up to my room. I lost my bracelet so can you call the Rift and Gate Management to report the location where I found the rift. It is in that abandoned factory." Randy said to her.

"The abandoned building? What were you doing in that place?" She said with a frown on her face.

Randy realized that he had slipped up just now when he said the abandoned factory. The abandoned factory was not on the way to his house, rather it was on the east side of that alley that he was passing through. However, Randy instantly thought of an excuse as he hurriedly spoke to his mother.

"Mom, I was just walking with my friend whose house was towards that direction. I just met him on my way home and decided to talk with him as we walked, but who would have thought that after I separated from him, I would actually run into those monsters." Randy explained to his mother.

Indeed, he had one friend who actually lived in that direction and although his friend does not specifically use the route that he was talking about just now, but it is not really a lie when he said that his friend lived in that direction. Even if they were to ask his friend right now if he actually lived in that direction or not, as long as his friend was not disloyal, he would actually confirm that he was telling the truth.

"Hmph!" His mother only snorted before turning her attention to the thin television screen that was plastered against wall like a poster. This was a television made from some highly advanced technology that was developed during these past decades when rifts and gate started appearing.

At this moment there was a headline on the news channel that mainly talks about rifts and gates.

[A new unexpected rift: The rift and Gate Management Department just announced their discovery of a new rift that escaped their detection radar.]

The female news anchor started asking the refined middle-aged man who was sitting next to her, some questions about the recently discovered rift: [Professor Ma, what are your thought on this unexpected rift? Have you received any information regarding the type of rift we are dealing?]

Professor Ma cleared his throat slightly before speaking: [Indeed, I have received some news regarding the type of rift we uncovered during this time. From what I hear, they were not certain about the specifics of this rift, but it was deemed as a magical type of rift, which means, it was connected a mana-based world. While they are not sure if some terrifying beings had already slip out of the rift as of yet, but they cannot rule the possibility of some vicious and malicious monster already escaping past our radar, so they are still searching the surrounding of where the rift was discovered. I have also sent my people to help assist with this unforeseen rift that had eluded our detection. But as most of you know, our rift detection is becoming useless as of lately as it seemed that unexpected rifts like this kept happening on our radar. But rest assured that we are doing everything and whatever we can to find better tracking and detection method to prevent these incidents from occurring in the near future. Fortunately, this time, there were no casualties, so we were very thankful for that. For now, citizens near the rift had been informed and told to stay in their houses and report any strange occurrences to us. All these was to better ensure the safety of our citizens.]

The female anchor then spoke again: [I see. Then how is the stabilization of the rift coming along. Is it possible… Let me rephrase it… Is it safe to stabilize this rift for the use of Seekers to travel through or would it be forcefully closed down?]

Professor Ma spoke almost instantly: [That is hard to say for now. But if we can ascertain that there is no danger from the rift, then we would definitely stabilize the rift for use. But if there are some hidden dangers discovered during our analysis, then we would have no choice but to close it down, even if it would cost more resources to close down the rift.]

The female anchor continued to ask her questions: [Then do you know the rank of this rift or is that not determined yet?]

Professor Ma replied: [We have not concluded on that just yet as we have yet to see any creature from the other side. But we would definitely announce the results once everything had been analyzed.]

…

The female news anchor asked various question regarding the rift and Professor Ma answered them eloquently. He was renowned for his contribution to some of the recent discoveries about rifts and the gates that had been appearing in this world for decades now.

Meanwhile, Randy who was going upstairs stopped when he heard the new mention the unexpected rift and so, he decided to listen to their explanation before going upstairs. And he was relief that the government had already found the rift, otherwise who knows how many casualties would ensue if they had not found it in time. But Randy was not sure if he should tell them that two monsters had already escaped the rift. Although, he could say that he survived two monsters as a no ability holder, but no one would believe him. Besides, it would not make a difference even if he told them as he did not know where those monsters went.

"Don't bother reporting that you saw two monsters escaping the rift. You don't have any prove and I am assuming that you have no idea where they went either, right? Just go to your room and leave this to the government. They are already searching the perimeters anyway, if there are monsters or beasts out there, they would find them sooner or later, there is nothing you can do to help with that." The indifferent voice resounded in the living room.

"Okay, I will head to my room now." Randy agreed with his mother, and he then walked the stairs leading to the second floor. However, on his way, he heard a voice behind.

"There is food in the refrigerator if you are hungry."

"Okay, mom. I will come down later when I finish showering." Randy said in response without stopping his tracks as he made his way towards his room.. Right now, he wanted to check his abilities before taking a shower or even doing anything else.